Finally you  loosened up and you're  mostly enjoying  your senior year.   Maybe a little too much -- after having no detentions for three and a half years, you'll get twelve during your last semester.  When you cut class with Eileen on a spring afternoon?  Check to make sure that Fr. Frank isn't in the gym when you  sneak  in the side door. 

Congratulations on being the prom queen. In another ten years you'll be what some might call a welfare queen, because you'll get AFDC  while you're on maternity leave with a daughter you'll have as a single parent.  You'll be the first in your family to graduate from college, have the first grandchild, and be the first (and only) to get welfare (for less than three months).  Your Catholic parents will adjust to the idea and they'll love their granddaughter.  It will be okay. You will  find a job to support the two of you, and when she's two you'll find someone who wants to marry you and adopt her and then you'll have another beautiful girl.  You won't  stay married to him, but by the time you split it will be a relief.  And you'll be okay. 

You're nervous about going to a college in another state where you don't know anyone, but it's the right thing to do.  You're ready to leave the small town.   Don't worry too much about choosing a major, because  some of the jobs you will have later don't exist in 1975.  You can major in  English,  History or Psychology -- it doesn't matter all that much.  But try to get a couple internships so you make contacts and get some experience in field that interests you.  You could skip transferring to  another college and spending a miserable semester missing the friends you had and trying to make new friends, but if you did you would miss meeting Terri, who recruits you to be a camp counselor "up north" during what will be one of your favorite summers. And  Minnesota is  a good place to call home, so it ends up okay in the long run.  Make an effort to find the people who are interested in activities other than  drinking during college.  Explore the city and find out what it has to offer.

Nurture your friendships, because you'll rely on them to get through trying times.  Besides being a single mom, you'll have a difficult marriage, a drawn-out divorce, and a spell of unemployment later,  but with the help of friends you survive these things and the accompanying financial strain.  You'll be okay.

Friends will also sit with you and comfort you when your mom dies suddenly before she's 70 and before you're ready to not have a mom.  She likes to hear about what's going on with you;  maybe you should talk to her more now.  By the way, Monica, the baby sister that was born this summer, while  you were too busy with  friends and college preparations to  spend a lot of time with her? She'll become one of your best friends in another 20 years or so. 

It's not a good sign that you don't want to be alone with your first  boyfriend,  Alan,  and even give your next youngest sister (Bea, five) candy so she stays around when he visits.   Don't worry so much about what men think of you and pay more attention to whether you can be appreciated for yourself and enjoy a guy's company, and then ask yourself if you like and respect this person. Fear of being alone or of hurting someone's feelings are not good reasons to be with someone.  

Tough times don't last but tough people do.  You're tougher than you think you are.  You'll also  have to learn to be resourceful. While  you might struggle to pay the bills, you'll have beautiful children, meaningful work, and a wealth of friends, and these are things money can't buy. You'll be okay.