A Moment That Changed Me: I Saw My First Total Solar Eclipse — and Its Beauty Shook Me to My Core. “I knew the theory, but I was not ready for the experience.”
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Comments 4
I never thought I'd be hooked by something like this, but once I caught the 2017 eclipse all alone on a mountain pass in Wyoming, it was all over for me: my daughter and I saw the 2024 eclipse on the beach in Mazatlán, and God help me if I'm not in Tunisia next summer...
My neurodivergent brain was fully prepared for the eclipse in 2017: a road trip with the kids to ensure maximum totality, timer apps on my phone, photography gear ready for video and solar photography, science demos and experiments leading up to and during the partial eclipse, etc.
And then it happened and I was blown away. "Moved to tears" indeed. In the middle of totality, I stood there hugging my oldest child, both of us in tears. It's the ultimate dichotomy to witnesses an inevitability of orbital mechanics be breathtakingly incredible, to feel so insignificant while being connected to every living thing around you, for the world to stop because something feels wrong on a primal level yet the moment is indescribably beautiful.
If there's any way to get yourself to a total solar eclipse, I implore you to make it happen!
I got eclipse-pilled in 2017 as well. "I was not prepared for how incredible the total eclipse was. It was, literally, awesome. Almost a spiritual experience."
We drove up to the middle of VT in 2024 to see the eclipse that year and it was absolutely mesmerizing, and totally worth the gridlock all the way back to NYC.
I still have a keepsake can of Lawson's Path of Totality as a memento.
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