Summer time

Last weekend the clock went one hour back: a nasty surprise. I was already going to bed on the late side before my gym session the next day. Switching to summer time meant another hour would be taken off my night. In the end, it messed up my sleep for an entire week.

Here, daylight hours changing drastically during the year is the most natural thing. Winter is maximally depressing. You leave home when it is still dark. Return when it’s dark. In summer, you can sit outside with some of the last sunlight until late at night. The shortest day has a bleak 7 hours and 40 minutes of daylight. The longest, more than 16 hours of glorious sun (or rather – glorious solid white, as our sky often looks).

Never have I thought that this is not true everywhere around the world.

I know, I know. This is going to sound a bit dramatic. I simply felt so delightfully surprised when my colleague from India shared his confusion about how much daylight changes here. He had to do a double take when he noticed it was still light out when he was having dinner – it has always been dark when he had dinner around that time.

Isn’t it thrilling to discover these differences? Thrilling to glimpse how little you know and how much there is still to discover?

The Internet intertwines us with people from around the world. In academia, we also connect in person: universities are full of foreign students and staff. Communications are instantaneous, we have access to faraway news broadcasts and read books written by foreign authors. It’s easy to think that we know much of what we think we can know about other people. In reality, there is a colossal treasure trove of surprises. Daily realities that are so normal to some that they don’t really talk about them until prompted.

I’m especially guilty of thinking “I know stuff” about cultural differences because of my mixed European family. Brushing aside the fact that my cultural roots are all from the same continent, in truth, I do not really know that much about my other roots. The explanation is simple: I didn’t live long enough in other countries to know all the intricacies of growing up with that culture. It’s like the details in foreign movies that you miss or simply don’t get. I rationally know many Polish people share a common trauma from their – my — turbulent history, but I don’t feel it in my bones. I don’t know how it is to live that life.

This story about the daylight made me realise how precious this sense of wonder is. It’s a waste to confidently assume that you know things. What about the sheer joy of seeing something in a new light? It’s wonderful to feel ignorant every once in a while, it’s a brilliant opportunity to become closer to other people.

Summer time

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