The Art of Saying Goodbye

Goodbyes are hard, I think we can all admit that. From saying bye to family when moving away to college, saying goodbye to friends, saying goodbye to a place you call home, all of it hurts. But part of it is beautiful.

I remember the first time I said goodbye to friends and family when I went to college. I moved from Hawaii to Michigan, a new frontier, one I had never been to or experienced before. It sucked, I’ll be completely honest, leaving my tropical home for the Midwest, a place that didn’t touch the ocean or have the green nature I was so used to. And even worse, I would be far from my family and friends, from my rock that I knew I could always fall back on without a doubt. Saying goodbye to them was arguably one of the hardest things I had to do. I never thought it was going to be as difficult as it was, but saying goodbye to my parents before they left to go home hurt in a way that felt impossible to describe. Yet, there was something about saying goodbye that wasn’t completely the worst. There’s something deeper in saying goodbye, something that makes you realize that this is a new start, a fresh one, and it makes you look back on everything that got you to where you are now.

While saying goodbye to study abroad, I felt this deeper feeling in saying goodbye. Yes, it was still hard to say goodbye, it wasn’t like I was saying goodbye to my college friends who I know I’ll see next semester. I was saying goodbye to friends that I’ve grown with through this adventure, friends that live all across the world that would be difficult to see again. I was saying goodbye to my boyfriend who I started dating while studying abroad, someone who I went on so many adventures with and made so many amazing memories that I would have never made if I didn’t choose to study abroad. I was saying goodbye to professors and classmates who made me laugh everyday and taught me so much. I was saying goodbye to my host family who became like a second family to me, people who took care of me like I was truly part of their family. But despite being sad over these goodbyes, I felt happy. How lucky I am to have gone through this experience. How lucky am I to have met all these amazing people, people I likely would have never met if I didn’t choose to study abroad. How lucky I am to call them my friends. How lucky am I to have been able to do the things I did, travel to the places I did, make all of the memories I did? I couldn’t focus on the downside of goodbyes, how can I when everything I’ve gone through, everyone I’ve met, all built me and changed me into a different person than I was when I first got to this country? I think that’s the beauty in the art of saying goodbye, to do something so painful but remember how lucky you are for these goodbyes to hurt. It’s a reminder of your journey that you experienced and that there’s a reason that these goodbyes suck.