JMC-3423–003 — The Eclipse

Joshuvelli
Aug 29, 2017 · Unlisted

The Total Solar Eclipse of 2017 meant a lot of things to a lot of people on this campus and across this country. To some it was seen as just another one of the beauties that exist beyond our atmosphere. To others it was more symbolic; a fresh start on life. For me it was the beginning of my super-senior year and a shift at our campus library.

The sun was as relentlessly hot as it had been for most of the summer, but as I walked down the south oval, I noticed crowds gathering. Totality was near.

As I walked into work, a coworker of mine was discussing the significance of the eclipse. She spoke enthusiastically about how it was once in a lifetime experience that hadn’t happened in 100 years. She cared so much about the eclipse that when I stated that I never got eclipse shades she handed me hers and when it was “totality” time, she insisted I go outside and experience it.

I took the shades and responded with the usual “say no more”, walked out into the crowd (that had grown significantly), put the shades on, scratched my forehead, accidentally knocked them off and stared directly into the searing brightness of the sun for a few seconds, picked the shades up, put them back on, looked at the eclipse, took the shades back off, handed them to my coworker, said “that’s dope, thank you” and went back to work.

Was that story anticlimactic? Yea, so was the eclipse. But aye, not for another 100 years or so right?

P.S — Here’s some photos of some crazy guy staring at the eclipse without shades: http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/21/politics/trump-solar-eclipse/index.html

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Joshuvelli
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