As the clock on 2024 ticks closer and closer to zero, and this weird, often upsetting year comes to a close, there’s a lot to look back on, both personally and globally. A lot of things unified us, but, for me, maybe none greater than the total eclipse in April. The eclipse was also among the most widely searched topics with non-concerning questions like “why do my eyes hurt?” and “eyes hurt after eclipse.”
I made the 12-hour drive from Savannah to Arkansas , where I stayed with a group of about 10 friends in a small apartment to see the once-in-a-lifetime event. I was stuffed in a car for hours with three other people, an air mattress, and all of our luggage for the two or three-day trip.
If I close my eyes now I can picture the events of the day in a time-lapse: meeting my college bestfriends’ new friends, looking up at the sky as the moon crept over the sun, and the sky grew darker and my skin got colder.
My final year of college in ‘22-’23, I took a sociology class where we read parts of Atlas of the Heart by Brené Brown . It was a hard time for me, among so much change in life, but I remember riding from somewhere with my friend (actually from Savannah) and tracing the letters of the book, reading aloud to her Brown’s definitions of emotions so that we could discuss them.