A yellow, disposable bic.
There's a particular subculture of people who exist and come together only during the last two weeks of any given semester on a college campus, materializing, without fail, in the dregs of a horrendously lit 24 hour computer lab in the hours between 2 and 6 AM. Flocking there night after night, you're apt to run into the same group of people who, like you, are subject to the mercy of academia and non-existent study habits, jointly.
Emotions are high and transient; people are seen hysterically laughing at the futility of their efforts, silently crying, and visibly attempting to prevent impending panic attacks.
An unrivaled solidarity invariably develops among the people seen slaving over books and computer screens as the sun rises. A comaraderie and familiarity is established among this group of random, absurd, extreme people who are otherwise indistinguishable to one another. In "real life," during hours that are decidedly more Godly, looks are exchanged in passing in Dining Halls, dorm lobbies and academic buildings that are akin to supportive looks of close friends who intimately know and share in your mental state without the exchange of words. Looks that read "Yeah. I need a fucking drink too."
In Ithaca, there's a group of Janitors that patrol the hallways adjacent to the Computer Lab during the night’s late hours; occasionally coming into the lab they exist on the periphery of this sub-culture, commiserating with students in their shared yet utterly disparate experiences.
At 5 in the morning, everyone is vulnerable. Everone is on equal terms. Everyone is interconnected.
Brenda, a 22 year old blonde woman working the night shift gives me her lighter and stands outside with me, during one of my all night work binges. As we stand smoking in the empty parking lot, she tells me that she recognizes me as "that girl who's always walking around campus... back and forth with her ipod on. I see you all the time," she says. I awkwardly smile and say "It's a stress thing." She smiles back. "Yeah. Yeah. It's cool. You do what you gotta do, right?"
Right.