Daylight Saving

I woke up at 12:15 in the afternoon today because I just did not want the day to start. I had set an alarm but by this time I already developed an instinctive ability to press the button on my iPad that kills the alarm. The moment the alarm rings I head straight for the 'Home' button, or one of the 'Volume' buttons if I am feeling daring that morning. Point is, I did not want the day to start.

I remember having a conversation with my cousin on daylight saving. I wish I could move back my clock by five hours to get the extra time each day. That was basically how the concept of daylight saving operated, wasn't it? Guess what, I was mistaken. Granted I could play the 'Imma kid from a country on the equator' card to justify my misunderstanding of the concept, a gloss for being unable to understand a simple concept, but alas...it was a simple concept. The problem was, and my cousin concurred, that there needed to be nationwide consensus that the clock would be set back an hour, otherwise the person who set back his clock would have a lousy excuse to be late to his classes. There needed to be a consensus to save daylight.

The day still goes on here in Cambridge (and it's getting even longer as Spring proceeds). The daylight is more than ample and the positive ones among us are still rising up early in the morning to 'grasp' as much daylight as one can (I am looking at you my Engineering buddy from Downing). While the pandemic has led to many facilities being shut down, it has not and cannot steal the daylight. The daylight glares through the gaps in the shut blinders to sprinkle golden droplets on my eyes. "Get up! Start the day!,' it says. I take cover beneath the thick barricades of my blanket. Alas, it's mission into the window to wake a sleeping Brendan up was to no avail. I feel bad for the sunlight. As Eminem says, "that is why they call it Window pain". #dadjokes

But the sunlight cannot call its mission a failure. Many others have heeded its call. They have awoken, gone to begin their daily toil, to provide their service whether it be essential for everyone, or whether it be essential to one. They rise everyday to their position, and the world sees it clearly.

There remains this consensus. That the time is as such and that such time is passing. What daylight is there to save if it remains sufficient for the day? Not over yet are the days worries that I refuse to address. But I stay beneath my blanket of reluctance, so as to be wrapped by a sense of comfort even though I can feel the air within thickening with heat. Never had I the luxury of getting up this late but never was I this finished the moment the day started. The day felt short, I had achieved my goal.

At this juncture I feel I need to pause the literary discourse to explain that this is not some huge 'revelation' that I have about waking up late. Waking up late makes you feel more tired and basically waste the day. That's a fact. Fight me (xD). No. this blog is not just about me waking up late, it is about how I perceive time outside of the Cambridge bubble. Yes, I think unintentionally 'Popping the Cambridge Bundle' has and would be a recurring theme throughout these series of blogs if I am able to keep them up.

When the pandemic hit I wanted Cambridge to pause as well. I felt like my textbooks were bowling pins scattered by the 19kg curve ball labelled 'Corona'. I needed time to pick them up - and as I am beginning to see - pick myself up. I need to continue. Fortunately, as a friend has made it clear to me, it is but that, a continuation, rather than a restart. Plus, some rest is definitely not a bad thing. Jesus told his disciples to rest after long hours of ministry. Rest is a necessity and an integral to God's design.

Perhaps it was the sudden paradigm shift that affected me, and undoubtedly all of us. I do not want to play the pity card and write as though I am the only one going through this. Being isolated by law (not due to having symptoms, thank God), in a lovely town with a lovely outdoor view, is a first-world problem. Many have it worse. Many are forced to be out in the field. In fact, there is a deep dread within me about how I am unable to use any first-year law skills to help remedy the pandemic.

It is more the daylight that I now am unable to churn into productivity - think failed photosynthesis - and then long for a daylight saving program which sets the clock back 336 hours (that's two weeks and yes, lawyers can do math). I want to save my daylight that has been snatched away from me. But not only is this impossible, but this is far from consensus. People are out there working hard, making the best out of their daylight without even seeing said daylight sometimes. In my time of dread some are motivated. The nature of my work may not replicate theirs, but perhaps somehow, in addition to resisting my urge to go out, I can do more.

I wish I could end this blog post with some practical advice. But for now, this is more of a place for me to process the thoughts I am feeling in a more complex manner than necessary, staying true to my calling as a future lawyer. The more practical advice comes in the form of washing your hands, staying 2m apart, and I would not want to patronize you by repeating them. I guess if there is one thing that I've learned from this discourse, is that blogging is fun. I never had the time to do it during term. This is where my daylight goes, and hopefully it will soon go where it should go. In such times there is no right answer. But there is a consensus. That we will not let the situation steal our daylight, as it cannot in the first place.