Zihao Lin

You walk out of Bass. It’s dark outside. It’s only five p.m.; that’s not okay. 

The Sunshine Protection Act, having just passed the Senate, will ensure that the clocks will stay with the extra hour at night. Time will no longer shift an hour behind in November and will stay in the daylight-saving time that was changed to in March. 

I have never been a morning person, so the Sunshine Protection Act essentially basically just gives me an extra hour of daylight. The morning hour will definitely not be missed. I assume most other Yalies agree on this one: I don’t know very many of us who enjoy waking up before 6 a.m.. 

Having to turn on my desk lamp when I come back from my class in the afternoon. Having to walk back from Science Hill after section in the dark. Not going on runs after 4:30 because I won’t make it back before sunset. Feeling like it’s ten p.m. at seven because it’s been pitch black outside for hours. Thinking I have a ton of time to go watch the sunset from the stacks but then leaving my room way too late and finding that it’s already nighttime. All these situations I’ve experienced throughout the Fall semester. 

This article was intended to be in favor of the Sunshine Protection Act. Now, I’m not sure whether my motivation to extol the extra hour of sunlight stems from merely my hatred against the Winter Darkness Act that nature imposed on us. 

I come from Brazil and Morocco, both places famous for their sunshine. It isn’t even about warmth, Yale’s heating works, thank goodness, relatively well. It’s about the fact that the blue sky of a sunny day makes everyone happier. It’s about the fact that we have more hours of happiness to enjoy. 

Especially in New England, where it already gets dark early (definitely much earlier than it did in Brazil or Morocco), the Sunshine Protection Act is essential to preserving our wellbeing and sanity.

 Just think back to that sunny Friday right before Spring Break–the glorious Friday with 20-degree weather (Celsius that is) and the blue sky stretching above New Haven. Every single Yalie was outside. The sun made us happy, it reminded us that there would be better times coming, times free of midterms and stress. And along with that sunny day, soon after, came an assurance that this could remain, at least a little longer. We can now have more sunlight than we used to. 

The Sunshine Protection Act is splendid, I have no negatives. 

So I guess my real critique of the Act is: what took it so long?