This weekend, on a whim of spontaneity (as with most of the decisions in my life), I decided to skip off with a new friend to her residence on the Kent University Campus. I am a commuter at my own college, so I do not spend a great deal of time in the residential side of things when it comes to school, so I am not overly used to campus life in general. However, during the school year, I do spend a great deal of time chained to the campus and the activities occurring there and so, when exposed to a campus that was not my own, I noticed a contrast and a phenomenon that summer seems to awaken.

I arrived on a Thursday evening in the later hours towards morning and as I unpacked my car and moved myself into her apartment for my stay, nothing seemed greatly amiss. The night was peaceful and without incident. However, the following evening, as we returned to the residence, a liveliness had appeared like a spell cast upon the grounds. In the witching hours of the late evening/early morning, collegiate beings had materialized like the fairy courts of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" with just as much energy and revelry but far less dignity.

The nearby pool was alive with the sounds of splashing and wild youths, like some campus version of a watering hole out on the savannah. Whoops and calls like those of night prowling animals in the wild echoed off of the bland brick walls enclosing this little college reserve. It was as if they had just materialized there out of thin air and settled in as if they had always existed in that space. This contained-carrying-on lasted the whole evening into the early hours, when nocturnal beasts do usually retreat to their resting places.

And, sure enough, when I awoke and rose the next morning, it all had gone. Even midday brought no signs of life from the corners of the cramped apartment complex. Nothing betrayed the events of the previous eve. It had all vanished like fairy revels in the night. The partying itself did not shock me, since that is pretty much par-for-the-course on any campus, and as partying goes, it was rather tame and respectful. "The Twilight Zone" tendrils of oddness creeping into the corners of my mind were rather due to the total lack of evidence of activity or signs of life during the following daylight hours; and I don't just mean a lack of party people, but rather any people. It truly was a mystery.

So while the average summer campus may be a quiet landscape in the day hours, once night has fallen, an entirely new life is breathed into the surroundings. It is different and not as wild as the antics of the school year evening revels, but it is still present and persistent in a mystical sort of way that never quite seems permanent. Like the night hours themselves, such activities vanish with the morning sun until evening encroaches once more, and until finally the summer comes to a close, flooding the campus with the busy rush of usual college life once more, the magic gone until the next quietly mystical summer.