Prom

  

Remember Mai Kai

Our "Tahitian Holiday”

Dear friends, when we part

This night forever

In all its island splendor

We'll keep in our hearts

1971

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As the title indicates, this poem is about prom. I wrote it in my junior year of high school. Mai Kai Lounge was the venue, and the theme was Tahitian Holiday. My date was my steady boyfriend of 3 years. I would call us high school sweethearts, but then I broke up with him the summer before our senior year. I still loved him, but I knew I was going out of state to college, and I didn't plan to ever move back to Michigan. I didn't want to have to try to maintain a long distance romance, which I assumed would inevitably fail, anyway. And I wanted him to be able to date other girls while he was still in school with them. As a matter of fact, he ended up marrying the first girl he started dating after we broke up, and they have been happily married for more than 50 years. They still live in our hometown where he is on the school board and she was a secretary in the high school office for many years. So I guess maybe I did the right thing. I still wonder what our life might have been like if I had stayed with him. Honestly, I believe he has had a much better life with her than he would have had with me. So yeah, I think I did the right thing.