2016 has been a year of goodbyes. We all know that. Celebrities have died who made our lives happier with their incredible contribution to the arts. Leaders have passed who have changed our lives forever. Maybe you have experienced other goodbyes. Leaving your home for the first time to move into college or seeing a best friend graduate high school and never seeing their smiling face again in the halls you know so well.

The fact that these goodbyes have to happen is a sad truth about life. Some know this more than others. I am lucky in the fact that most of my goodbyes are not forever. I know I will see the person or experience the same feelings again and maybe again after that. Yet within the past year, goodbyes have become all too frequent for me and for our world.

These goodbyes invoke feelings of despair and stress, reflecting on them feels like diving into a pool of memories that you did not know you were swimming in. You were wading in the pool without realizing you were wet. But once those people or experiences are gone, you begin to feel how their lives have soaked your own life in the waters of happiness and change.

What I say is from my understanding and you may feel differently. However, the following types of goodbyes are ones that I have experienced only recently and therefore I have fresh thoughts about how I have interpreted them.

Goodbye to a Pet

This has been the most recent goodbye for me. My dear cat, Jack, has been with me for most of my life and was a defining friend of my childhood. He would star in some videos my friend and I made, he loved watching me play my video games especially enjoying the colors on the screen, and he was the protector of the house always scanning the perimeter for any other cats who may want to take over. We believed he was the king of the neighborhood, complete with a Queen cat and several subjects. But when he would come back into the house, he was loving to us all. I can still remember how his fur feels as he rubbed up against my leg to say, "Hello."

For me, a pet is more than an animal that is allowed to stay in your home for your enjoyment. After a while, they become an integral part of your family. He was more than a friend to me and was with me when times were hardest, always seeming to listen. This is a goodbye that was harder than I thought it would be.

Goodbye to a Friend

Luckily for me, I have never had to say goodbye to a friend forever. However, I know many people who have and I cannot imagine how that feels. I will not even attempt to try to guess.

However, there are many people I have become close to whom I may never share the same experiences with again. Having spent an insurmountable time together to only graduate and move on with our own individual lives is something I cannot cope with. While I still communicate with many of them to this day, I cannot say that our bond is the same. Yet like all things, there is a silver lining. It is a goodbye that leads to new hellos.

If I had stayed in high school, I would have never met my college friends whom I feel as close to as I did my high school brethren. As I said in a previous article, my high school experience still means the world to me, but moving forward is just as important.

Goodbye to an Idol

2016 has already felt a devastating loss of many celebrities and heroes. Two that affected me the most were Hugh O'Brian and Elie Wiesel.

Elie Wiesel was an author I admired when I first read his memoir, Night. I could feel his experiences when I read his words. Then a miracle happened while I was still reading his book, I heard him speak! He was the guest speaker at my sister's college graduation. Let me tell you, it was an event to remember. I laughed and cried within the same hour because--just like in his writings--I could feel everything.

When he passed away, I knew the world had lost a great man. Yet, I was certain that many others around the world felt the same way I did and that made my heart happy.

Hugh O'Brian was an actor during his younger years, but also started an international organization called Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership or HOBY, as we alumni call it. If it had not been for this program that I have been a part of for the past 4 years of my life, I would not be who I was today. I would not be the goofy, open and heartfelt individual writing the very words you are reading. In fact, this article would never exist. I would have no idea where I would be.

Luckily, Mr. O'Brian wanted to change young lives. Eventually, the great wave he created reached me and I felt every drop of it. Now, I am trying my damnedest to keep that wave going so that others may feel what I felt. Thank you, Hugh.

There are so many other types of goodbyes that I cannot list them all in one article. Some are much harder than others and leave your mind foggy or restless for hours or days. As I said before, I will not try to describe how goodbyes feel for everyone. Each person is different and each person feels differently.

All I want to convey is that saying this one word is not all tears and pain. It can make you grow as an individual, not only making your stronger, but more heartfelt towards others who may be filling your pool of memories without you even knowing it.