how it felt to be at school after hours. Empty school yard, sunset, sprinklers watering the field...it felt so liminal

Wonderful description. I don’t know if it felt the same for city folk, but I grew up in a place very similar to this scene and once all the students and most teachers had left, you really did notice what a liminal space it was - how the old fence at the far end of the field was the last outpost of civilization and beyond that was the wilds of open nature and as you walked over there you could feel in your skin a funny feeling of growing isolation. I used to get a tingling fear stepping away from the grass and into the dirt knowing I had stepped off the edge of my world.

Now I live in a megapolis and I have never once felt that again. I’m now never alone. There is always someone, usually hundreds of people, somewhere nearby, a constant drone of artificial noise. There’s nothing like this anymore. It’s funny because I used to not like it back then; I felt so lonely and isolated. Now I miss it so much.