Student Blog: Total Eclipse of the Sun

On April 8th, I was so so privileged to have been in the path of totality for the 2024 Solar Eclipse. I go to school in Cape Girardeau, MO an thousands of people, including Thomas Sanders, drove all the way over here to experience the eclipse in our lil college town. There were so so many people. It took me longer to drive to campus then normal cause there were so many people, the hotels here in town were completely booked-it was crazy and at first I didn’t really get all the hype, but now I totally get it (haha get my pun). My school made a huge event out of the eclipse, including canceling classes and I wanted to talk about my experience for a bit and what it was like when all the lights went out:)

I watched the eclipse on the River Campus, which is our arts campus here at school. They had special events all over campus today. There were food trucks, telescopes, jewelry making, snow cones, you name it we probably had it. I work at the Arts Resource Center, which is a smaller library on the River Campus, and we had a make-your-own stain-glass suncatcher where you get to paint your own suncatcher. I worked in the morning, and then my boss let me go early so I could experience the events and walk around with my friends and such. I started out by getting food from the food truck which was very yummy then I got snow cones with some of my friends. After that we layed out our blankets in the grass to watch some special performances from our college's production of The Wizard of Oz that opened that weekend. They did so good and it made me even more excited to see the show. After that it was almost time for the eclipse! My friends and I gathered our blankets and found a spot without any trees and waited for totality to happen.

While we were waiting, we spotted famous viner and youtuber and all around great guy Thomas Sanders! I loved his vines as a kid, I loved his videos, storytimes were my favorite and it was so cool and great to meet him. He drove all the way from Florida to watch the eclipse because this was the closest place he could get with totality and he found River campus. I got to meet him and talk to him and he was super nice and that was so cool!

Then it was time for totality. It was probably one of the coolest, most surreal things I’ve ever seen in my life. I didn’t fully understand why people from all over the world came to my tiny lil town to see the eclipse, but after watching it I get it now. It started to get darker and darker until it looked like it was 9pm in the summertime outside. I put a screenshot from a time lapse below of our perspective of it that my roommate Courtney took.

It was so beautiful. We all collectively freaked out and seeing everyone's reaction was so fun. It was something I will genuinely never forget and I’m so glad I got to experience. It was dark for about 4 minutes and 20 seconds. And then, the moon moved and it became light again outside. Then, my friends and I sat on our blankets in the sun and relaxed for awhile. It was so nice. Then we all went back to our lives. The campus cleared out so quick, everyone went home, I went back to work, and we resumed our normal day.

I’m so glad that my school went all out for the eclipse and canceled classes so we could watch and enjoy it. It was an experience I will never forget. It also could not have been a more perfect day, the weather was absolutely beautiful, there were no clouds in the sky. It was truly wonderful.

Have a good week my friends, and go do great things.

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