Late Night Writers! The best time to be in the Writing Center

 

    One of the best times to be in the writing center at Coe College is the late night. For the past 2 years I have worked late night hours from 8 pm to midnight in the library. At this time I have seen many different types of writers come in. I have also seen some big changes due to Covid-19. Also what it feels like to be in the library for the long late night hours.

    One of the things that I love about the late night hours are the late night hours. staying up until 12 and 1 am is something that I have gotten used to in my short time as a college student. Think about it: who needs sleep when you have a paper due at midnight and it 10 o'clock. I don't even know where to start besides putting my name on the top. Those are the types of writer I like to see. The procrastinator who wants to put there brainstorming ideas into papers. Then we have those that just want there papers looked at. these types of writings come into the writing center all day. They can have rough drafts, faculty read drafts or just a few paragraphs put together. 

My favorite writers are the Night Owls. These writers like to stay up late and put there papers together. very rarely do you ever see them working in the day time. They like the night life because it is quiet and relaxing to them. But only after a certain time. I am what you would call a night owl. I can only work on anything after 9 pm at night and keep going strong until 3 am sometimes. How am I able to do it?

    Before Covid -19 in my first year working as a night owl we would get no more than 5 walk in during the times I would work during the week this was between 9pm and midnight. During this time the library still had a good number of people. the writing center itself had a good number of consultants working during that time and there where a lot of interesting conversations. This year was different. most of the time it was only me and the rest of time, there was at most 3 consultant in the room we still had good conversations. But the foot traffic was slow and I barely had over 10 consultations this whole year. 

One of my best moments this year, however, was one of my very last appointments where I helped a junior with her final paper for a medical thermology class. the next morning I got a thank you letter in an email. she told me that this was one of the first A's she had ever gotten on a paper in college. We had an hour long appointment the night before stating at 9 pm. It was great because it reminded me that I don't have this job to give me an excuse to stay up late, but to help people. 

Besides being an Night Owl, there is nothing else that I enjoy about being in writing center at night than helping those with there papers. Every year might be different with the hours and the people I see workers or clients but one thing will stay the same. Me walking into the writing center at 8 or 9 pm at night and not leaving until we close.