4/8/2024 : Eclipse Day
10:50am: Good morning! It is almost 11 am and I am currently working on applications and have been listening to Beyonce’s new album COWBOY CARTER and ScHoolboy Q’s new album BLUE LIPS. Today is Eclipse Day! I am excited to be a part of something so important to history. So weird that Muncie just happens to be in the path of totality; just another thing that makes Muncie so special. So many places are closed today. Burris is closed and even my tanning place decided to close to spend time with family during the Eclipse. It sucks that I have to be at work today (with such beautiful weather too!–currently 61 degrees out) and it sucks even more that I have an on-campus event and meeting right around the time the Eclipse happens. Sigh. I am curious to see how many people make their way onto campus. I have been wondering if a lot of professors cancelled their classes today because they know a. No one will go to class and/or b. There won’t be any parking with all the people coming out of town to experience it. Regardless, we’re still here ain’t we!! I am hoping to give another update later in the day, when the Eclipse time is closer.
2:28pm: The Eclipse has officially begun! I have already walked out of work twice to see the progress of it. The start time was 1:52pm while totality is going to be between 3:07pm and 3:11pm. I am hoping to be outside and watch the full thing while it happens. Shoutout to Ball State for providing safety glasses for us to watch out of! I am surprised by the lack of people in the Quad. I expected it to be packed, and it may be yet, but as of now, there is only a spattering of people. Many have cameras and telescopes and I hope all are wearing some sort of protection! I wonder if it is because Muncie is on the ‘outside’ of the totality path, rather than dead center for there to be so few people here. I am going to check back out there around 2:30/2:45 and will hopefully check back in after the totality has subsided. OH! I forgot to mention that I was able to steal away with a BSU Eclipse shirt! I am told they glow in the dark, so that is exciting! (Also, I must mention that I did not steal the shirt, but they were giving them away for free and I happened to find one). I hope the total darkness is true, because that is going to be so amazing to experience. Well, with that, more to come!!
4:42pm: What an absolutely stunning display. What a beautiful moment to be human. Oh, how I feel so good to be alive! The Total Eclipse happened from 3:07 until 3:11; I was surrounded by people, just happy little humans. When the darkness fell across campus, everyone started cheering and clapping. I wanted to feel embarrassed but it was such a human moment, I could do nothing but feel glee and giggle. Watching the campus become enveloped in darkness, finally taking off my glasses to see the ring around the moon, the sun radiating behind it gave me a rush. One of my coworkers started dancing around saying “What a rush! Why am I so nervous and excited all at once??” and I couldn’t agree more with them. We all took photos–of the sun, the moon, the buildings enveloped in darkness, of each other, as a group, of the crowds on the green. Some people had telescopes. Some sat on chairs, others on blankets, some on hammocks. Most stood. It was soothing to hear the oohs and ahhs in that short 3 minute span of Totality. But funny enough, it also felt like a lifetime! My loved ones were texting me, asking if I saw it, saying how jealous they were of this opportunity I had (they live a little north of Fort Wayne), asking for pictures. The craziest part, I think, was the rapid temperature difference from the lack of heat and light! Even at this time, it is way chillier than it was earlier in the morning. I found a photo from the Partial Eclipse in August of 2017, and it was fun to compare who I was then to who I am now, the only constant being the expression of awe I held witnessing something so breathtaking. Work is almost ending, the hype has died down, and tomorrow things will resume as they were. If only for 3 minutes, we, the little humans we are, got to experience a Total Eclipse, something that hasn’t happened, in what I am told, over 1000 years. Most of our ancestors didn’t even witness something like this. We should rejoice in these chances and be even more tender to one another, and just remember that we are all just humans, hoping to get a glimpse of a ring around the moon.