America is So Quirky by Fenner Dreyfuss-Wells

Each year, when we lose an hour of sleep due to daylight savings time (or daylight saving time, depending on your preference), the issue seems to take on a sudden importance. A petition to eliminate the practice, for example, has amassed 179,401 signatures, and there will probably be more by the time you read this. There are proposals to make the time change permanent, keeping our clocks set forward like they are right now. Advocates say this would lower crime and traffic deaths, save energy, promote healthy sleep, and strengthen the economy. If this is true, I agree. It’s hard to argue against that slew of positivity. But maybe there’s something to be said for our current system.

Personally, I enjoy the always-unexpected shifts in daylight. I like waking up one winter morning to find that the sun has already risen, illuminating the path to school. I smiled as I came home from practice today to find sun flooding into my living room. It’s a pleasant surprise, one that’s worth an hour of sleep in the spring. Besides, it’s quirky! A nationwide coordinated clock shift for the purpose of changing the availability of sunlight during the day is the last thing I would expect legislators to devote time to. But they did, and that’s what we do, and it’s exciting, and strange, and okay. 

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