[ WP ] First line `` I remember when a day was only 24 hours long . ''

I remember when a day was only twenty-four hours long. On earth, they still are. And it'll stay that way for millions, or billions of years. But here on Mars, my new home, the new home of humankind, a day is thirty-seven minutes and twenty-two seconds longer. You would n't think it'd be different, but it is. Every thirty-six days on Mars, we will have lived thirty-seven Earth days. Over the course of my life, I will lose almost two Earth years to time, to mass, to distance. I've been here a month and I'm already experiencing insomnia. The medication helps. Sex helps. We do n't even know if babies will be born healthy on this daily cycle, but we have to try. The only real benefit is an extra forty minutes of that big blue sun and the way it illuminates the dust, across a range of hue and contrast, disappearing finally behind the iron-red horizon. It reminds me to not be fooled by this dilated day. You're growing old faster now. Be good.
