You Say Goodbye...and I Say Hello

I remember the day I left like it was yesterday… After only two hours of sleep I was off to the airport at 4am with tear stained eyes and my entire family. Fortunately I had no more tears to cry as my breakdown three hours ago took every last drop; so I was left a bundle of nervous energy – the kind that makes you shake like you’ve drank too much coffee (not that I’ve ever done that.) And surprisingly, my three day old perm was no confident boost. A family friend at the airport helped grant my family “Military Access” so they could all come to the gate and wait with me. One of the security guards asked my sister which division I was in and her reply was one more of query, “Uh…the one that…uh...solves world peace?”

Since that departure, people have seemed to come in and out of my life at a much faster pace; yet we still managed to develop intimate relationships of understanding that will forever leave an impact on who I am. Some of these people I will stay in contact with but more than likely, I’ll never see the majority of them again. Perhaps it’s a result of getting older and going through more goodbyes or possibly the effect of emotional isolation over the past year or maybe neither one – either way, the goodbyes have not gotten any less disappointing but they have become more…I guess one could say, non-chalant. Meaning…less emotional, and perhaps less informal. Difficult to explain. Maybe at some point in your life you reach a particular limit and you become conditioned to think, “well, that’s that – time to move on.” Good or bad – nothing lasts forever.

Anyways, this past month or so has been filled with exciting new beginnings, nonchalant endings and a whole lot of that stuff that happens in between. I’ve gotten the opportunity to do so much recently that I hate to leave anything out but for the sake of trying to keep this remotely interesting ...I’ll say goodbye.