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Northern Lights

Dear Diary:

The northern lights, or aurora borealis, were visible from New York City, and I missed them. A potentially once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon, and I was dead asleep in my Lower East Side apartment.

On the way to a hike in a state park outside the city the following Saturday, the 15-seat van was full. We chatted about how Kali had met his wife at a TED Talk, whether Trevor Noah was a sellout and what our dating deal breakers were.

Genesis said she wouldn’t date someone who didn’t celebrate their birthday properly.

“How you celebrate your own birthday is how you’ll celebrate mine,” she explained.

Shante agreed but said that her ideal partner would celebrate other holidays properly, too.

We talked about our love-hate relationships with voice notes. Genesis loved them. Shante didn’t even listen to them. My father had just sent me a 17-minute one that I listened to twice.

Just before we got to the park, Kali mentioned the northern lights. I confessed how much regret I had been feeling for not seeing them.

I was hoping everyone would say they weren’t that great — barely indistinguishable from the lights of the Empire State Building or Freedom Tower — and that I hadn’t missed much.