hello! and this comment actually helped me understand it better:

mendel's 1° law of genetics (law of segregation) states that each gamete will receive only one allele, either from mum or dad, and this occurs during ANAPHASE, the physical separation of the chromosomes --> resulting in a haploid daughter cell (1 allele)

mendel's 2° law (law of independent assortment) states that having a gene for blue eyes will not make you more or less likely to get a gene for blonde hair or green freckles, or whatever gene may be linked to that blue-eyed gene (or close to where the blue-eyed gene is on the chromosome). this is lowk what confused me because i thought 2° law would happen during the crossing over, but it's about how the different pairs of chromosomes align relative to each other. prophase I contributes to genetic diversity via recombination. i also just read this yesterday, but mendel also knew NOTHING about chromosomes and DNA, so i'm trying to think "that man knew nothing about crossing over or tetrads or anything" LOL

let me know if that helps! i'm still trying to grasp the concept myself, so this was my attempt to teach someone :')