NYC Winter: Dark at 4:30 🌆🍂

Daylight saving time ends — and by 4:30 PM, the sky over New York is already painted in shades of deep blue and violet. The early sunset may feel abrupt, but it wraps the city in a quiet, reflective mood. As a grad student at Columbia 🎒📚, these short winter days have their own rhythm. Walking across campus as the library windows begin to glow, watching steam rise from manholes into the cold air, passing by warm-lit coffee shops filled with students typing away on essays… There’s a sense of shared purpose, even as night falls so soon. Sometimes I stroll through Riverside Park along the Hudson — the skyline slowly lights up as the blue hour deepens 🏙️💙. The winter chill is real, but so is the beauty: golden hour comes early, soft and fleeting, and the city feels both majestic and intimate. Between seminars and late-night study sessions, I’ve learned to find warmth in little moments — a hot matcha latte 🍵, a friend’s laughter in a heated dorm lounge, the way Morningside Heights looks dusted with frost under amber streetlights. Winter in New York is a season of contrasts: early darkness, but brighter connections; cold walks, but warm interiors; the rush of finals, but the peace of a snow-dusted courtyard. It’s a chapter of growth, resilience, and finding light — even when the sun sets at 4:30. #ColumbiaLife #GradSchoolDiaries #NYCWinter #EarlyNights #StudentLife #WinterInNYC #CampusVibes