3:00 a.m. Radio

Tufts has a radio station called WMFO, and my impression is that they have a ton of one-hour broadcasting slots to fill each week, so they have a ton of students coming into to each fill an hour of airtime. 24 hours a day, 7 hours a week.

I learned a couple months ago that someone I know from my pre-orientation backpacking trip is a DJ for WMFO, and that her slot was at 3am on Friday mornings. So every Friday, a bit before 3am, she’d come down to the radio station and get ready to broadcast for an hour.

There’s something that I love about that idea. Walking down the hill in the dead hours of the night, when it’s completely silent on campus, to sit in the thick quiet air and talk into a mic for an hour in between music tracks.

Something about it feels extremely calm and therapeutic.

I guess there’s something magical about being awake when almost no one else is. Whenever I wake up early to watch the sunrise (which, admittedly, is about twice a year at most), there’s this great feeling that comes from driving when the whole world is asleep. It feels like the whole world is mine in that moment.

There’s also something interesting about broadcasting and not knowing who’s out there listening — or whether anyone’s listening at all. I’d imagine it takes the pressure off, but you can still speak as if you’re sharing what’s on your mind with someone. In the process, you kinda talk things out with yourself.

It’s a bit like this blog. I write things here, and I think some amount of people will read them at some point (I mean, you are at least), but it’s very different from telling people how I feel directly. If I’m telling you something directly, there’s this expectation that you’ll find what I have to say interesting.

On my blog, you only read if it interests you. I’m putting my thoughts in a publicly reachable spot and saying, “here they are, take a look if you’d like.” And if you read them, I’m happy about that! And if you don’t, that’s okay too. Either way, I enjoyed writing it.