People say mornings are the best time of the day with their fresh starts, new energy, and birds chirping. But let’s be honest, mornings also come with 8 am classes, surprise quizzes, and that one friend who’s suspiciously too cheerful before coffee. My vote is for the real golden hour: 10:00 pm, the magical time when the day’s chaos finally decides to hit snooze.
That’s when everything finally slows down. The morning madness of classes, deadlines, and “did I really just write my exam like that?” fades into the background. During the day, the campus feels like a bustling train station, people rushing with backpacks, professors marching with purpose, and you sprinting to class pretending you definitely didn’t oversleep. There’s chatter everywhere, the sound of students struggling for their lives, and the constant buzz of assignments hanging in the air. But at 10:00 pm, it’s a whole different story. The stars are up, the blazing sun has set, and the night air takes over. The same spaces that felt crowded and chaotic suddenly feel wide open and calm. The pathways that were full of people frantically flipping through notes in daylight now look like quiet little patches of peace. We finally slow down, breathe easier, and actually have the mental space to notice how the campus looks like it has been through the same day as you, a little tired, a little slower, but so much prettier under soft lights and cozy silence.
This is also when my friends and I take our ritual night walks. No matter what the day throws at us, late submissions, bad exams, existential crises in the library, by the time we meet, all of it dissolves into laughter and chaos. Every walk becomes a new episode of our sitcom, full of inside jokes, exaggerated rants, and cameos with people we barely know but somehow always bump into at night. And then, of course, there’s the unofficial endgame of these walks: Narsi’s. That tiny ice cream fridge is both my therapist and my biggest disappointment. The joy of spotting my favorite flavor fully stocked? Peak happiness. The despair of realizing everyone else beat me to it? Character development. Either way, it adds an extra layer of suspense to the night like a treasure hunt, but for sugar.
What I love most about this time is how it ties the day together. It’s not loud or dramatic, just calm. The chatter fades, the night air feels cozy, and for a moment, campus doesn’t feel like a whirlwind of assignments and exams. It just feels like home.
So, if mornings belong to productivity, afternoons to caffeine, and evenings to assignments, nights belong to us, a bunch of students walking, laughing, and praying for good ice cream. Honestly, the only reason I survive my days is because I know no matter what happens, I’ll always end up here with my friends, under the pretty campus lights, and hopefully with my favorite ice cream in my hand.