My First Daylight Savings Experience

As there is no daylight savings in India, I had never heard of such a thing in my entire life … until … that fateful Sunday October 31st, 2004.
It was my 1st quarter in my MBA class. It had been just a couple months since I had just moved from India. A critical team assignment was due by Noon on Sunday October 31st. Everyone on the team was supposed to email their part to Sean by 11 AM that Sunday morning. He was to summarize it, wrap it up, put a bow on it and then email it to our professor before Noon.
Side note, I didn’t know in the beginning that Sean was actually pronounced as Shawn. When my MBA began we were verbally introduced to our teammates so I knew my team had a “Shawn” on it, but it totally confused me when the handouts had no “Shawn” on the list. :-)
When I opened my eyes on Sunday morning, I saw with great horror that my watch said 10 AM. I was supposed to be up at 9 so that I could finish my assignment by 11, but I had overslept! There was no way, No Way, NO WAY I could finish everything in an hour.  I knew I had 2 hours worth of work left.
I jumped out of my bed with a lightening jolt. My heart sank instantaneously. Shit. How could I be so irresponsible! I got a terrible sinking feeling in my gut. I was worried and tense. This could be doomsday for my career, I thought. I had never felt this nervous before. I didn’t know what to do. I began to weep out of worry and guilt.
With wet eyes, I went straight to my computer and opened my homework until 5 minutes later I noticed that my computer said 9:06 AM. But my watch said 10:06 AM. I looked back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. I wondered what was going on. I rubbed my eyes. Was I dreaming? Was my computer also acting up now? Was I getting a panic attack?
And just then my roommate (my angel) Shibani woke up and said loudly – today is the end of day light savings, we gain an hour, yay!
It was a YAY indeed.
After 10 years, I still get confused about which way my clock should turn during the start and end of Daylight savings, but there is no inkling of doubt in my mind that in FALL I gain an hour.