A ghost town full of life

Tuesday was the last day of finals at Grand Canyon. A lot of people had finished up earlier, but there were still a few stragglers taking tests yesterday. But now that finals are over, the dorms have emptied out, save for a few lonely souls. It feels a lot like a ghost town. You can see evidence of people once being here, but they just aren't around any more. It's kinda sad. But it's also pretty cool.

Last night, after SALT, the ten or twelve of us who remained, decided to play hide and go seek. It was close to 11:30 and open hall had ended about an hour and a half earlier. But since three of us were RA's, we decided it would be okay. Mostly it was a game of scaring people as they walked down the pitch black hallway, but it was still a lot of fun. Afterwards we all went and hung out in the lobby and played board games for a while. After a few sleepy heads went to bed, a couple of girls decided they needed ice cream, so Big John and I went to QT with them as their bodyguards.

The whole point of that story is to setup this - when weird circumstances happen, walls come down and people get closer. The dorms were empty, and those of us who were left definitely felt lonely and almost left out. We had to stay behind a little while longer while we envied those who got to go home early. I got to hang out with a couple of people that I don't normally spend time with last night, and it was fun. We became a group with loneliness as our common bond. And it was enough. In some sense, I think each of us would have rather been at home, spending Christmas with out family. But I know that I wouldn't have given up that time for anything. There were some new friendships formed last night and some old ones made stronger because we were all alone together. And it was a good thing.

They say old friends take a long time to grow. I figure that in a couple of years I will be needing some old friends to rely on and so I guess now is a good time to start making some new ones. You never know when they will come in handy.