I understand that it has been over two months since the solar eclipse earlier this year, and I've probably missed my window of opportunity to rightfully speak on the subject. But seeing as the next solar eclipse to pass by the United States will be in 2044, a whole 20+ years from now, I can't pass up the time to talk about it.
I'll try to keep it short.
The Prep
I had first heard about this year's solar eclipse through my high school physics teacher just over 3-4 years ago. Not entirely sure of the exact context around it, but the topic came up and I remember that day putting May 8th, 2024 into my Google Calendar.
And come time, seeing the approaching event as well as numerous online articles covering the topic, it was a relatively easy decision to decide to go. As mentioned before, I am a college student, so I did have to take off a day, but for an event such as this and for it not to occur again in the United States for another 20+ years, I believe it was all the worth it, even if it was only a handful of days away from finals.
And even come to think about it, it's my driving belief that this is the perfect time (this age) to do ambitious, new, or adventurous things, as who knows where I'll be in 5, 10, let alone 20 years. It could be hard to take time off work with a full-time job. There obviously would a greater financial strain. There could be a family too, who knows!
The weeks spent before were filled with, admittedly, obsessively monitoring the weather. People online seemed to very pessimistic about Ohio, with many claims of Ohio being nothing but clouds and rain in the spring, the lake effect clouds, and anything being on or east of I-75 having a high chance of being covered in clouds. However, my mind was already made up, travel to the best location at the time, and see what I can see, rain or shine.
The plan was to drive to Findlay, OH, check the weather, and continue from there. And on the day of the drive, it was nothing but perfect. Skies were clear for a thousand miles, with very light cloud cover. The sun was out in full force and the temperature was perfect. And when we arrived in Wapakoneta, Ohio, everything looked perfect.
I had brought one of my friends with me at the last minute, and one more joined us as we met down in Wapakoneta. After 1-2 hours of walking around and setting up, followed by another hour of carefully watching the partial solar eclipse, totality as soon to hit. Just before, the air cooled at a rather fast pace, and the 360 degree sunset was definitely a sight. At the point of totality, I was watching through my solar eclipse glasses at the time, and I was a little bit confused when the sun disappeared. Then someone around us said "glasses off" and that's when I realized.
The Eclipse
And looking up at where the sun was supposed to be, and instead it being replaced by a white ring, was something otherworldly. It's hard to put into words, let alone writing, to describe the experience.
It just felt forbidden, like that's not what's supposed to happen. To look up and stare at something that would normally blind you, instead replaced by a perfect circle of darkness "emitting" wispy white rays felt very surreal. To imagine these huge celestial bodies aligning in such a way so that we can experience such an event, to imagine something so much bigger than ourselves. It was nothing like I had ever seen before.
Standing up from where we were sitting, I just remember smiling throughout the entire time, and probably with the most awed look on my face. I just couldn't stop repeating out loud "that's so cool" either. I also would be lying if I said I didn't shed a tear either. I don't know why. I wasn't absolutely crying, but it was definitely emotional, and I'm not an emotional person either.
As much as I wanted to get a photo of the corona, I knew that a photo would never do it justice, especially on a phone. I just wanted to experience every second I had of totality. Leave the photos to my friends.
And just as fast as it came, it left. While it was only just over three minutes, it felt like forever. After it ended, I wanted to experience it again.
And then came the drive home.
The Journey Back
I say this often now referring to this day, but I don't think I'll ever complain about traffic ever again.
In my research, I found there were "horror" stories online of people's drives in 2017 turning from four hours to eleven hours or from neighboring city to neighboring city taking three hours. I believed I was being pessimistic when I thought the drive home would take four hours at worst, it only took two hours going down I thought.
The traffic wasn't bad going north on I-75 up until southern Toledo. There were some slow downs and jams that quickly cleared, but reaching the outside of Toledo, everything came to a standstill. At its worst, it probably took over an hour and a half to move a little over a mile. While that could be an exaggeration, it definitely is not an exaggeration when referring to the traffic in southern Michigan traveling up Telegraph Road.
It felt as if everyone from Michigan who traveled to Ohio to see the eclipse was taking the same path to get back.
Through tactical route changes, using old highways and roads that crossed through farms, and a test of patience, a short two hour drive down took just over six to get back. But I kept saying out loud, that it was all the worth it to experience something like this.
Would I do it again? Absolutely. Who knows, I might have my eyes on Australia 2028, otherwise 2044 and 2045 will be waiting right here in the states.
Footnotes
- This post was originally supposed to be longer, but I didn't want to just tell a story. I really only wanted to cover the important points and thoughts.
- I did try to promise myself that I would write more posts here more often, but recently my time has been taken up by a full-time internship I had started just over two weeks ago. Who knows, I might write about that.