At my senior prom I was dressed in a pink silk gown with a white eyelet overskirt. It was one of four floor length dresses that I have ever worn. My date was the first man that I had ever loved, although it was a love destined not to last through the tests of adulthood. He wore a simple black tuxedo.

We seemed very old-fashioned next to our friends who wore halter-backed dresses and pastel tuxedos, as was the fashion of the time. It was not until much later that I could appreciate how very young and beautiful we all were. We spent so many hours poring over photos of the media ideals that we never appreciated ourselves or each other for the wonderous creatures we were.

After the prom, six of us shared a limousine to Manhatten. This was back in those pre-historic times when the legal drinking age was 18, but we still had the sense not to drive while drinking. Oh for the days when six of us could comfortably share a standard sized limousine!

At the end of the night we managed to talk the limo driver into a ride on the Statten Island Ferry. Back then, I lived in a part of New Jersey that could be reached by bridge from Statten Island. When we arrived back in our home town, it was very late, but one of the guys suggested that we go to a local park and watch the sun rise. It was the first night that I had ever been allowed out without a curfew, and the idea of staying out past dawn was too much to resist.

At the park we coupled off, and my boyfriend and I talked about all the plans that we had, and all of the things that are so important before you have to work full-time.

As we waited for the sun rise we admired the night sky and noticed that there was a “gypsy moon.” This is a moon in the last quarter that is aligned with the stars in such a way that one of the star seems to hang like an earring from the moon. As we waited for the sun, and kissed beneath the gypsy moon we felt very lucky indeed.

I have seen a lot of night skies in the years since then. But, each time that the moon and stars align as they did that night, I am brought back to that time. And, for a time, I still feel young and fearless, and the world seems full of possibilities.

-- I wish each of you a wonderous life full of possibilities.

Posted: May 8, 1997

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