Disclaimer: This is NOT a joke. Or is it?
Last week, maybe Wednesday or Thursday, I woke up fifteen minutes later than I should have. Glancing at my phone every couple of minutes, I frantically ran around my house trying to get ready as fast as I could. 7:25. 7:32. 7:46. 7:51. That’s when things got bad. There was yelling from downstairs: “You’re going to be late! Hurry up! What’s taking so long?” I looked at my phone again: 7:56. Four minutes. I had four minutes to get in the car, drive to school, drop off my lunch in my locker, and sprint into English all in time for the first bell at 8:00. When I arrived at school at what I thought was 7:59, I ACTUALLY had three whole minutes before first period. But how?
To my (and pretty much the entire school’s) surprise, the notorious Mountain Lakes High School clock system had been set back. Not to the actual time, not one minute behind, but two whole minutes behind the time of the universe (as defined by my iPhone). Naturally, this became somewhat of a heated controversy for the next few days at MLHS until they were set back to the correct time this Tuesday. Before this correction, I was curious to know who was okay with the new clocks and who was hating them.
I asked around and gathered some opinions of MLHS students about our new clock situation. Some were thrilled by the new MLHS time zone. One MLHS student revealed her somewhat unpopular opinion: “I like it. It helps me get to school on time because I’m always late.” One said that, compared to the clocks being two minutes ahead before, getting to school on time became less stressful. Another explained, “I like it because it helps me get to band on time in the morning.” To those who tend to be fashionably late, the time change seemed to be positive.
However, aside from the few positive reactions to the new time on the clocks, the majority of students were opposed to this two-minute change. One impassioned MLHS student simply stated: “I hate it. I get out of school too late.” Another noted, “It throws me off and I don’t like it. I can never tell when a class ends anymore.” Another student agreed: “The clocks confuse me. Plus, I still get to school late.” Lastly, one student had a more reasonable, convincing reason for resenting the current state of the clocks: “It makes me late after school to get to my job.” To many, two minutes makes a considerable impact on one’s day and this switch was not a good call (but thanks for switching it back on Tuesday, Mr. Sánchez!).
Now, objectively speaking, getting flustered over two minutes sounds ridiculous. Aren’t there more important things to be worried about? MLHS, what does this say about us? If we can’t handle a simple two-minute change in the clocks, how will we react to more significant changes in the community at large? If we can’t seem to adapt to the most trivial of changes, what does this mean for our future?
But more importantly—arguably the MOST important question we should all be asking ourselves—will the clocks change on us again? And if so, can we ever really trust them?
P.S. For deeper introspection on the subject: click here.
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