3:30 AM to 3:30 PM

3:30 AM is when I sit in my bed alone; it’s not that I can’t sleep, in fact, I’m quite tired. No, I’m awake, because I want to be awake. 3:30 AM is the best time of the day, in my home I’m alone, my parents and siblings, even my dogs, they’re all asleep, so in that aspect I’m alone, but in reality I’m not. 3:30 AM for me is lunchtime for someone else. Someone else, somewhere else, just sat down to eat lunch; I’m not alone; I’m awake with them. 3:30 AM for me mean going to sleep, but for the night shift crew, it means getting up, time to start their day. They’re scrambling around their house, while I rest in bed, I’m not alone. I’m awake with them. 3:30 AM for me is piece and quiet, a time to reflect, but for the new parents, it’s a time of cries, chaos and prayers to sleep, as they sit down on the couch, holding their crying new born, I know, I’m not alone, I’m awake with them. 3:30 AM, I sit in my room, thinking, and I know I’m not alone, there’s another like me, sitting in their bed staying awake, on purpose, just to be alone, but their not alone. I’m awake with them. 3:30 AM is halfway through the witching hour, for young kids, with nightlights, they sit in their bed, their nightlight shining across the shadows of their room, they, too scared to move, they think they’re alone, but their not alone. I’m awake with them. 3:30 PM is the loneliest part of the freshly divorced parents’ day; they lie alone in their bed for the first time in a long time, their TV is off, and there is no shine of nightlights from their child’s now empty room. The bed is cold beside them, they feel alone, but their not. They know their child is out there, their still with them, just not beside them. And they know somewhere, someone lies awake with them. I’m awake with them.

3:30 AM is seen as the time for loners, the ones full of fear and lost, to sit alone in the dark. But we’re not alone, sure some of us are loners, some are in the dark, others full of fear, but we are not alone. Because I’m awake with them, and they’re awake with me. No matter where I am, if I’m out camping, lying in my bed, even on the other side of the world, I am not alone, we are not alone. You are not alone.

3:30 AM is a time for the kids on a sleepover, night shift workers, late-night study groups, first-time parents, and newly married couples. Their not alone, their living their life, their not alone, and they know it. There are always kids screaming that they made it past midnight, there are always nurses hurrying to patients’ beds, running through the hospital, doctors starting emergency surgeries. There are always students, somewhere, studying for their big test or exam, sitting in a library or dorm room, staring at equations, or persuasive text, chemistry homework, or their history final. They know there are others doing the same. Two new parents sit on the couch holding their crying newborn; they don’t have the grace of a silent night, but they still sit together in the dark, they are not alone, they have each other and the rest of the world watching over their baby. The newly weds a few blocks down, spend their first real night together, bonded for life, they spend the night filled with nothing but love, laughing over memories of their wedding, celebrating their love, finally getting to explore each other.

Their not alone, but they sit here, with the loners and the little kids too afraid to sleep. We sit together in the dark of the night, happy or sad. Alone or surrounded by people. stressed or the most happy they’ve been in years. we all sit together, we are all awake together. I am awake with them. They are awake with me.

On the other side, at 3:30 PM, a group of girls finally finished their late lunch and hung out, down at their favorite park. The cafe workers are sighing, closing down the cafe, ready to head home for the day. The kids run screaming out of their classrooms, running across the street to their cars. Somewhere, a boy only just missed getting hit; somewhere else, another child isn’t as lucky. At 3:30 PM, on the other side, people watch as the newlyweds share a first kiss. A young girl proclaims their love for their classmate. Somewhere, a relationship ends with heartbreak. All these people are caught up in their lives; on the other hand, millions of people sit silently on the other. They don’t think of those people, why would they? But those people on the other side, the darker side, think of them, wondering how their day has been. As the sun starts to set at 3:30 PM, a million lives change in a million different ways. Millions of lives begin and end, millions of doors open, and millions close. And yet we sit with them, their not alone. I’m awake with them.

But with all this commotion, all these feelings of joy and sadness, all these actions that change the course of these people’s worlds. We sit in the dark on the other side. Just because it’s 3:30 PM doesn’t mean you’re not alone, just because it’s 3:30 AM doesn’t mean you are. The time of day doesn’t matter, what you’re doing doesn’t matter, and where you are doesn’t matter. Someone is always out there, someone is always awake with you, you’re never alone, someone somewhere sits in silence with you, cries with you, walks with you, laughs with you, sits in pain with you. Somewhere AM or PM, there is someone out there with you. You’re not alone.

I’m awake with you.