Are you still afraid of the dark?

Darkness lies in everyone’s hearts, but adjacent to the midst of blackness lies the sole producer of everything good — light. The night is associated with the dark, and the opposite of night, which is associated with light is day.

Sayings of old always create terrifying myths about the horrors of the dark, and what foul creature or threat that lurks within it. However, whatever evil occurs in the nighttime also can trigger daunting and dangerous events in the day.

As students of Santa Monica College, we have not forgotten that gruesome, sorrow-filled shooting, that transpired in the day and shrouded the light in an engulfing aura of darkness.

Nowadays, night and day seem interchangeable, as the night can be a time of fun and festivities, whereas the day can seem like a long drag of nothing and is often filled with work and boring activities that lead to despair.

Some people find the day uncomfortable, while others find it too dangerous to wander off at night, but as an investigator of the balance between light and dark on whether or not night is safe, I find it to be troublesome to those who aren’t hardened and accustomed to the dark.

The night truly is mystifying and presents unspeakable travesties — to which even I can testify — but before I highlight the dangers of the night, and why I find it to be more repulsive than the day, one must ask themselves, what do fellow students think about night?

Is it a time for enjoyment, or should it be avoided at all costs?

SMC student Christian Yousef prefers the day, and considers it to be safer than night and illustrates some of the potential worries that can come about at night.

“You can get away with things at night," he said. "It’s easy to elude; you can hide."

Students use the cover of darkness to run away from home or slip out unnoticed while others just like to leave the house at night. “I like it, the night is better and you can clearly see things during that time,” said Jim Brown.

Brown thinks that the night is fun, and that anything exciting can happen at night, but when asked, what kinds of “exciting things” happened while he experienced the night he said, “I plead the fifth.”

The fifth did not seal the lips of Joshua Ham though, who defended the wild and engaging activities that do not occur during daylight hours.

“It’s about who you know. I’m from South Central, and it’s a bad place but it’s a certain time and place that makes stuff dangerous, bad stuff can happen at day or night — not just the night.”

However, being no stranger to night Ham recalled tales of his midnight exploits, “Functions, parties, and family get-togethers make the night fun you know?”

Truth had rung in the words of the optimistic student.

However, his friend Josh Lubrico, did not see eye to eye with his thoughts.

Lubrico mentioned gritty things that could happen at night—especially with females—and his co-worker was no exception. She almost became a victim of kidnapping, and to this day she carries a taser and pepper spray.

“At night my friend was walking from work and a dude was following her home. He drove a car and wanted her to get inside of it, but she ran away,” Lubrico said.

Lubrico still remembers the story his co-worker told him, and never forgot the taser she showed him after she experienced the night man.

I can see how trauma riddled the mind of Lubrico’s co-worker and I sensed truth in his speech about women and the night. He is no liar.

In fact, I witnessed two different prostitutes who wanted to sell their bodies to me in the hours when Los Angeles sleeps, and I’ll never forget their bodies.

I bumped into one prostitute who wanted to do business with me at 3 a.m., and another prostitute who solicited me while I was walking to 7/11 to get some Iced Teas for my roommates.

The second working girl was naked from the waist up, and walked to me smiling, while covering her breasts in order to advertise the ‘treats’ she could give me if I insisted.

A nasty sight could not have been enough to describe the state of her skin, but seeing her nakedness rekindled past events of the nakedness of the night. Naked skin represents exposure of one’s self and the public street truly exposes itself at night.

Fights, rowdy men and women, bums, and the stories of my father all reminded me of my experience of the night.

I’m used to it and I have no fear but, “One has to be hardened to enjoy it,” said Ham and I believe the night is not for the faint of heart.

“Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed,” said Saint Paul of Tarsus in the book of Ephesians.

To this day evil runs rampant in the hearts of men, and in 2013 criminal wickedness is not limited to the night.