Yesterday was the solar eclipse. And I realized that I had never seen one before.

In person, that is.

I’ve seen videos of previous eclipses.

But yesterday was the first time I could look out and see it for myself.

It was fascinating.

I was a bit disappointed, though. I though it would get darker.

Maybe it’s where I was watching it from?

It got dark. But dusk-dark, not nighttime-dark.

And I was expecting nighttime-dark.

As I’m writing this from my desk at home, I can hear birds chirping.

I was at work for the eclipse, and I don’t usually hear birds around there. It’s an industrial area.

So, I couldn’t notice the birds “stop” chirping when the totality occurred. Or hear them start chirping when it was done.

It was neat to see the sudden darkness when the sun was completely obscured. And the sudden light when the moon started moving away.

But I wanted it to be darker.

Isn’t that the problem with preconceptions? If they aren’t met, you are disappointed. Even if the experience was cool anyway.

I like listening to other people’s reactions to the event. Because most of them didn’t have the same expectations as me.

Sometimes you can enjoy someone else’s experience. Even if your own experience didn’t live up to expectations.