Campbell Cemetery
Graveyards are the one place where people are allowed to be solemn because no one is expecting any different. Especially with depression being diagnosed nowadays as often as the common cold, people don’t allow themselves to be sad because sad now equals crazy. But, unafraid, I let the solemnity seep into my bones as I sat within the four, tall concrete walls of Campbell Cemetery.
The engravings on the outside wall told me that the gravesite has been here since the mid 1800s, a relic in my advanced city. I happened to stumble upon it while Geocaching with my friend, Ryan, from school; we plugged in the coordinates of the geocache, drove to the local Red Robin, parked, then followed the GPS to a section of woods I have never really noticed before although I had been there a million times. A beaten path led us straight to the rusted iron gate of Campbell Cemetery. Ryan pushed it open as the worn hinges squealed in disuse and we stepped inside the looming walls. Suddenly, I was overtaken with a calm, almost eerie feeling that I accredited to this magnificent graveyard. We carefully examined every tombstone as if it held secrets rather than the names and dates of death of these unknown people.
Ryan knelt down in front of one of the tombstones to pick up some of some fake flowers, dust them off, and straighten out their weathered petals to how they were supposed to look. I smiled because someone was careful enough to leave these artificial flowers; not real ones since they die, and a cemetery does not need any more death. I watched him in this completely subordinated position and asked why he was doing this for a complete stranger to which he replied, “Well, I would want someone to do this for me.” His response was so nonchalant and honest that I could only inwardly agree and step back to watch him finish his work.
Our presence gave the graveyard life where there was only death and ruin. No one makes it out of life alive, I thought, but then felt gloomy. But it was okay, because no one was expecting any more from me.
Thoughts From an Uncomfortable College Mattress 