I have a very complicated relationship with Daylight Saving Time. It’s a concept that I honestly never understood the point of, even to this day. When I was younger, I was always told that it was implemented so that farmers would get more time with their crops, an idea that sounded ludicrous even to a six-year-old me. But as I got older, people started to stray away from that notion and essentially debunked it. So if it isn’t for the farmers, then who exactly is Daylight Saving Time for? This is a question that I continue to ask myself.

I have seen some answers as to what it’s for, a common answer being energy/fuel conservation as a result of World War II, but that’s all that I have for “what is this for.” The question of “who” this is for is still a mystery to me. It seems that there are a lot of people out there who don’t particularly like Daylight Saving, including myself and the farmers for whom this was allegedly for in the first place. 

But in my personal experience, I tend to have more of an issue with Daylight Savings in the fall. And for reasons I cannot explain, this year in particular is starting to affect me more than it has in the past. 

But why? Daylight Savings has been around longer than I have, and every year it’s the same routine. Around the first Sunday in November, the clock falls back an hour, and everyone who lives in a region that follows Daylight Saving Time regulations has to deal with the fact that it gets dark way too early until about March of the following year. But something about this year in particular is worse. 

Even though I don’t have a full grasp as to why that is, I have a few theories. As a college student, it’s that time of the semester when you know that all of the breaks are within reach but you’re not quite there yet, so with that in mind, everything seems slower than usual as you patiently – or impatiently – wait for the breaks to arrive. 

Along with that, college students are notoriously more depressed around the late fall/winter months, and it being pitch black at around 4 p.m. now definitely doesn’t raise my mood in any capacity. 

After a lot of thinking it over, one more factor as to why this year has affected me more than most likely stems from the fact that I’m now in a smaller community than what I’m used to. 

I am a city girl through and through. I was born in a major city, and before Rowan, I went to school in a major city. While this community has its fair share of ups and downs, it’s much smaller than where I grew up. Whenever I was at home experiencing Daylight Saving Time, I never thought much of it, distracted by the chaos that I was surrounded by on a daily basis. 

When I went off to college the first time, even though I was states away from home, there was a sense of familiar chaos on campus and surrounding areas that I didn’t think about it that much.

Even though Rowan’s campus and the surrounding Glassboro area have their moments, this is a new environment for me and essentially uncharted territory. That, combined with the factors of hectic class assignments and usual seasonal stress, I can say that Daylight Saving Time this year has topped my list for the ones that have affected me the most. 

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