Four Minutes I’ll Never Get Back

By Kati Schoenwitz, CF APMP, Shipley BDC

I’ll admit it – I didn’t care about the solar eclipse.

Based in southwest Michigan, I wasn’t in the path of totality. I’ve also never been much into astronomy and the concept of space kind of freaks me out. I remember working in downtown Chicago during the 2017 eclipse and was underwhelmed by the experience. So this time around, I just had no interest.

When people started canceling meetings or asking me to move appointments around because they were suddenly taking PTO to travel out of state or attend a watch party, I was annoyed. I had critical meetings scheduled for Monday – strategy and proposal meetings that were important. When my home office started getting dim yesterday around 3 PM, I rolled my eyes thinking: Is this what all the hype is about? Unimpressed.

Then my inbox traffic stopped and Teams messages slowed.

The day became quiet.

Later, I saw videos on TikTok and social media recapping the experience. Thousands of people gathered in cities and fields across the country cheered when the sun was totally eclipsed. News commentators marveled at the sun’s corona. People talked about getting chills as the air temperature drastically cooled and cheered again when the first flash of sun (the “diamond”) reappeared.

I suddenly regretted my cynicism. While I still didn’t appreciate the canceled meetings, I get it now. We don’t have many opportunities to unite over experiences… brief moments in time where we’re human and just in awe of this vast universe and our place in it.

I read somewhere this type of total solar eclipse won’t happen again until 2444, centuries from now. It was four minutes that none of us will ever experience again.

Those brief minutes were a sobering (and also happy) wake-up call: enjoy the moments we have and take joy in the little things.

Because guess what? The rescheduled proposal kickoff and strategy meetings still happened the next day. They will continue to happen because our work doesn’t end.

That night, I booked concert tickets for the Hans Zimmer concert I’ve been contemplating and put a few days of PTO on the calendar.

So in case you need the reminder too: it’s okay to seek joy. Don’t let work eclipse your life.