My Clan of Crazies

It's that time of year again when the libraries begin to fill. Students stride past the doors with heavy backpacks, thermoses filled with the highest levels of caffeine hidden at their sides as they quickly walk past the front desk, and minds filled with facts that need to be ingrained before the nights end. It's this time of year when I begin to steer as far away from the library as possible.

I love the library during the early weeks in the semester, when students go there with merely the intention to study, and since no tests exist in the near future to gauge their understanding of the hours spent in the library, they find a place at a table and open their books, hold their pens between their fingers, simply to feel studious for the time being.

It's during these times when tables of students suddenly giggle in whispers, and lovers sneak glances and hold hands under the table, friends write notes to each other, students walk aimlessly through the books picking and choosing whatever sounds interesting.

Unfortunately these times are short, for conditions change way to soon, and tables begin to fill with students whose bottoms are chained to the edge of their seats, whose elbows are glued to the edge of the table, and whose books are nailed to the wooden surfaces.

Though I try to steer away from the library during these days, I occasionally step in--waiting. Waiting for someone brave enough and strong enough to unlock a few of those chains and make a table of students jump quietly in their seat with laughter.

Perhaps I'll recruit a team myself. I'll recruit a team of students who will step in every four hours or so--some sort of disruptive clan of crazies-- who will sit at tables "in disguise" and randomly burst into uncontrollable laughter for a whole minute before calming down. I'm sure it'll force a few smiles to creep up on people's faces and that alone is enough to tickle and shake up this heavy, morbid vibe.