Let me start off by saying I am in no way some solar system fanatic who had the eclipse marked on their calendar. Before the start of this school year I doubt I could have even told you what a solar eclipse was. But soon after the first day of classes began and I was around other students, I began telling myself that this was the event of a lifetime, something my kids would be amazed that I saw in person.

Walking on campus, browsing the internet or watching TV; every time we turned our heads we heard about the solar eclipse in the days leading up to Aug. 21. If you were outside on campus at 2:44 p.m. that day, you are fully aware of the letdown that pursued. Instead of getting to see the near total solar eclipse, the people of Statesboro were treated to a sky completely filled with gray clouds.

Whispers of “Is that it?” and “That was disappointing” wafted in the air as people with and without the special glasses looked up at the sky in dismay. It was truly amazing to see so many faculty and students stopped on the pedestrian looking at the sky, and truly heartbreaking that a spectacle that was supposed to draw us all together in a moment of amazement ended in boredom.

Nearly all topics that get discussed by a large quantity of students have major biases. It is very seldom to have an event such as the solar eclipse (not just in the sense of its rarity) that can bring people of various differing viewpoints together. This was one subject on campus that, for once, everyone could see eye to eye on.

The entire university was about to get dark in the middle of the day and we as a collective were going to share that moment together! Instead once we gave up around 2:50 p.m., we went back to our separate lives, completely unchanged by what should have been the observation of a lifetime. 

Heather Silbalugh

Sophomore

Nursing major

“I was outside during the eclipse and I saw nothing. It was really sad since I lost $20 for those glasses, so that was really depressing. I would have sold them before [the eclipse happened] if I knew.”

Alexandru Barna

Senior

Computer science major

“I couldn’t see anything because it was too cloudy. I was really disappointed. I was over at the RAC at the outside pool. There was like 30, 40 people there. I just saw clouds. It’s not something you see every day, I kind of wanted to see it.”

Pierce Fox

Sophomore

Nursing major

“I was walking back from class and I saw nothing, and it was really sad because I was one of those people that watched a bunch of videos and got all [my friends] super excited about it and did a lot of research on it. It was really sad.

Mehtab Iqbal

Graduate Student

“It was fairly disappointing. It was just like any other very cloudy day. I suppose the most interesting part was everybody seemed kind of hopeful that the clouds were going to dissipate. The funny part is it kept getting more and more crowded, but then the moment it was getting brighter…within minutes it was just like nobody there. People were just hoping that the clouds would go away.