Gain an Hour, Lose an Hour
- navakallc
- Mar 10, 2024
- 3 min read
The very first year I moved here, I was surprised when one day, suddenly, the sunset had gone an hour earlier! I was confused on what had happened and how come I saved an hour (happily, I might add), when I finally came to know about Daylight Savings Time. There are a lot of things I learned when I first came to the United States, one of them being Daylight Savings Time. That is when all the time zones in the United States move forward by one hour to extend the amount of sunlight we get during the evening. This steals one hour from the morning sunlight and adds it back to the evening sunset time, stretching it out by one hour.
Currently, there are some states in the United States which don’t follow this ritual that happens every year. Even for people living here, it’s still confusing, which is why, there are certain pneumonic for us to remember it. Since we move forward and add 1 hour in the spring, daylight savings time in the spring is called “spring forward”. While on the other hand, since we are falling back 1 hour in the fall (autumn), moving us back to standard time, it’s called “falling back”.
Not everyone agrees on the usability of Daylight Savings Time, and it’s a constant argument on whether it is really necessary or important at all. Though it is still practiced and standardized every year. We “spring forward” on the second Sunday of march every year, which falls on March 10 this year, and we “fall back” every year on the first Sunday of November, which falls on the 3rd November this year.
Personally, I both agree and disagree with this phenomenon. It’s nice to get more sunlight during the spring and summer months, especially because the maximum sunset time is pushed to 9:11pm in Redmond, Washington on the longest day of the year, June 21st.
Though the transition from March to April is tough because the sunrise is later, throwing us into darkness in the early mornings once again. I liked waking up during the late February and early March weeks to go to school in morning sunlight, the sun having risen for half an hour already.
It gives me energy and happiness about the day, waking up to the bird’s sweet singing, their chirping greeting me as I walk out the door towards the car. The road to my bus stop comes on a hill, where it’s like you’re on a precipice as you are about to reach the peak, not able to see past it. Once you finally convince your car to tumble over on the other side, you can see the bright snow-capped mountains being hit with the first rays of the day, welcoming in the warmth and another blue sky. I’ll have to wait patiently for another month until I’m going to be able to see that again. Albeit I guess it’s worth it to have a later sunset.
As I started growing in age, my grades progressing me from middle school to high school, my workload started increasing as well. So, it was nice to have a later sunset so I could go out and get some fresh air before night fall. As an Indian, I’ve grown up in Mumbai loving the sun, it being a daily part of my life, including the heat, humidity and blue skies. It always makes the kid in me happy when I see a sunny day in Redmond because it gives me energy to be productive even though it’s still cold. The sun warms up my heart from the winter. Later sunsets remind me of summer break, and how close it is, including swimming till late in the lake, going biking over hills to watch the sunset, and picnics in the park. I’m looking forward to the same this year.
It also alters the time difference between India and USA though. There are seven standard time zones in the United States, formed due to the railroad systems. This was so the departure and arrival times would be standard, minimizing the confusion for passengers. Since I live in the Pacific Time Zone (PST), currently the time difference is 12hrs 30min between the West Coast and India, due to the Daylight Savings Time that started today. Though after standard time is put into place, the time difference would be more, 13hrs 30min. DST makes calling friends and family in India more beneficial because schedules are friendlier, and we can call for longer.
I would say overall, for me, there are more pros than cons of Daylight-Saving Time, and I’m looking forward for the delayed sunsets that are coming up now. -Navaka