Total Eclipse of the Heart: August 21, 2017

Some things just don't seem real or possible until they happen.

I woke up with a jolt this morning, realizing I had slept in later than normal. After a couple hours, I got dressed, went over to my neighbor's house, and prepared to watch the eclipse with them and their family. It started out with me looking for Lara, their daughter, because her mother told me to go find her and hang out with her. She was up in her room. Our first task was looking for the bean bags to use for the corn hole game they had set up outside. We checked the garage and the game room, didn't find them there. They ended up actually being WITH the corn hole boards and we didn't realize.

We went outside when the first portion of the moon started to cover the sun. Although I knew the glasses we had were approved, with all the news of recalled ones and the potential dangers staring at the eclipse can cause, I hesitated looking at first. Due to how dark the glasses were, it took a few seconds of looking before I even spotted the sun. From then on, it was just constant glances every 3-5 minutes looking up at the sun waiting for totality to happen. Months had been building up to this day, and you could tell everyone was anxious and excited. I refreshed Snapchat constantly to get a perspective on how all my other friends were viewing the event.

We sat in foldable chairs underneath a tent in my neighbor's backyard, basically in a circle. Two of my siblings, Hunter and Justin, were also there, but Keri (my other sister) was at a school orientation and my dad was at work. Others from the neighborhood sat up beside us, including a kid who was using a potato launcher to launch potatoes into the open space behind their house.

The cloud coverage started to increase as the time of totality drew near, and I started to worry if we would even be able to see it at all once it reached that point. Every time a cloud would cover the eclipse, I'd wonder if it was starting to get darker or not.

Eventually, it did start to get dark. There's no other word for the experience except eerie. It looked as if God was dimming the brightness on the world as if it was a phone screen. It had taken hours to reach that point, but once it did, everything changed quickly. The sky looked like a sunset for a brief moment, with orange and pink hues fading into a dark blue sky. Then, it was just really dark. You could look up, without glasses, and see the total eclipse.

And again, the cloud coverage cut the visibility of it short for us, but it was incredible. The reaction of the others in the backyards around us was amazing, too. The amazement was contagious. The event felt very unifying, especially during a time where coming together to rally around one thing is impossible.

It got bright again, we played "Here Comes the Sun"; chairs were put up, everyone went back inside and ate. All the teens gathered around the coffee table in the living room and sat there. Life was back to the way it was.

I didn't take any pictures with my Nikon just because I was scared I could do some damage to it, especially without a solar filter. If I did use my camera though, I think that would have taken away my focus from the experiences since I would be too distracted trying to get the perfect shot.

I'm very thankful that I got to experience such a beautiful, natural spectacle without leaving the comfort of where I live. God's creation is amazing, and even when it's not something that's once-in-a-lifetime like an eclipse, we really should take more time to admire it. Thank you to the Redmonds for making it such a fun time.

My mom always wanted us to be interested and have a love for science. I really would have loved to see her reaction to everything today and hear her explain how it all works.

For a moment, science wasn't just science, it was art. And it was real.

Love always,
Allison