Time & Perspective Quote by April Winchell

Jet lag is the respectable excuse; chocolate and french fries are the truth you confess when you want to make that excuse sound human. April Winchell’s line works because it treats disorientation not as a glamorous byproduct of travel, but as the messy sum of body, mood, and minor self-sabotage. The first two sentences set up a familiar narrative of competence: usually I handle this. Then comes the wobble - “I’m not sure why” - a tiny, disarming admission that punctures the curated traveler persona. The punchline doesn’t arrive as a joke so much as a self-diagnosis delivered with a shrug.

The intent is to reframe the problem from the external (time zones) to the internal (habits), without turning it into a moral lecture. “It could be due to” is doing a lot of work: she’s not fully blaming herself, but she’s also not letting herself off the hook. That ambiguity is the subtext. She’s acknowledging how easily we reach for technical explanations when the real cause is boredom-eating, comfort-seeking, and the odd intimacy of being away from routines.

Context matters: Winchell comes out of performance and comedy culture where relatability is currency. The specificity - “two and a half weeks,” “chocolate and french fries” - grounds the confession in sensory detail, a little decadent, a little embarrassing. It’s a modern form of travel writing: less about Paris, more about what you did to your dopamine system while you were there.