The most difficult part of that day was sitting through Mrs. Burrough's astronomy class in the last period of the last day of my senior year. Sure there were only forty-six minutes until my freedom but more importantly the beginning of my summer. And even more important than that was the birthday party that would be held for me that night.
But Mrs. Burrough was excited and considering what a rare occurrence this was, the class somehow managed to keep quiet. She was a short, older woman that took too many things too seriously. Her hair was dark and short and always parted the exact same way. "it's called a super moon kids. It only happens once every eighteen years or so. It's really amazing," she said admiringly. She pointed at a diagram on the board that displayed the moon and it's path around the earth. "See how the moon orbits. As it travels around the earth, it takes a sort of oval pattern."
I felt myself slowly fading away from her lesson to the fun I would be having that night. I would be forever grateful to my friend Shaylee who had planned my eighteenth birthday bash for me. Shaylee had decided to have it at her place where her family owned a beautiful three story house on eighty-six acres of land, including a small, private lake. Shaylee's dad was part owner to a major insurance agency, so on top of making a very sufficient amount of money he also travelled often. This weekend happened to be one of those traveling weekends in which case her mom was tagging along.
They are called perigee and arogee," Mrs. Burrough continued to explain. Pointing her stick at the perigee, "this is closer to the earth than arose. And every eighteen years there is a bizarre coincidence where the moon happens to be closest to the earth than ever. The Supermoon appears fourteen percent larger."
The super moon had always been a big deal to our family. My dad had always been a space fanatic. He knew most of the facts and had kept a telescope In our upstairs bathroom most of my childhood because apparently that was the best place to view things in our house. The day I was born, my mom recalled that my dad had missed everything about her labor except for my actual birth. He had spent most of his time in a tree on the side of the hospital parking lot staring at the super moon. Granted, at that point I was the fourth of the now current seven and Mom knew how to have babies by then. But Mom told me that as soon as Dad held me, he walked to the widow, pushed the blinds down with his finger and showed me te moon. "This means something special Lina. A supermoon on you're birthday."
Little did I know just how special it was.