The World Didn't End

I was hoping to write this post about how cool the eclipse was. I'm sure for most of you upstate, it was very exciting. Not so much down here in the city though. It was a drag! Last time the eclipse came around in 2017, my family and I took a trip to North Carolina to be in the path. We spent the whole day out on the lake paddle boarding and swimming. When it came time for the eclipse, it was awesome! Full darkness in the mid-afternoon. It was bizarre and unreal. I couldn’t imagine not being aware it was going on and then poof! Darkness! This year I had high hopes. I wanted that same feeling. I know the city isn’t in the path, so I already had a slight expectation of disappointment. I wanted to not believe in the science of it all, and I hoped we would be blanketed in darkness. I woke up slightly later than I wanted to. I got up, showered, and did my drawing of the day. I was going to go to the West Side Highway to view the eclipse, but while I was on my way, I ran into the Highline. I always enjoy walking down the Highline, so I thought why not? As I made my way downtown, the excitement of it all began to grow. It’s a beautiful day outside, there are crowds everywhere, and things like this don’t happen every day. It was very tricky to find a good spot to sit on the Highline because it was packed. Person to person packed. I looked up the peak time, and I was a bit early. It didn't help that I was blinding myself. I didn't have those cool glasses. Where did people get those things? Were you all prepared? I couldn't find them for the life of me! I sat around listening to music, and then the time came. The big moment! And nothing! For ten minutes, it looked like I put a slightly tinted lens over the sun. It looked like it was just another cloudy day. I saw a lot of funny posts on TikTok that with an earthquake and an eclipse in small succession of each other, the world was going to end. That wasn’t the case either, which was definitely not a disappointment. I was supposed to go home this weekend and stay until the eclipse was over. It ended up not working out, so maybe that is where all this disappointment stems from. Today was an example of nature’s clickbait. I feel like a snazzy article popped up, and I clicked straight away just to find out it was a lived up lie. I hope I get to experience a full eclipse again and be in the right place to enjoy it. To those who got to this time, I’m jealous of you. This will be a busy week for me, but I plan to post at my normal times. Master’s weekend is coming up, and I couldn’t be more excited! Happy Monday and happy eclipse day!