Goodbye; In some context, it is one of the hardest words that we will ever have to say or receive. Sometimes goodbye comes too soon. Sometimes it was long awaited. No matter what, here is one thing that I know: Goodbyes are never easy.

Whether you're saying goodbye to a broken friendship, someone who has passed on, the only person you have ever loved, or to the one person you never thought you would say goodbye to, goodbyes are like a glass vase that is bound to leave behind broken pieces. But here is what we have to realize: Sometimes, goodbye is necessary.

Goodbyes can be hard to understand.

One minute, you're talking about your next road trip. The next, you're watching the one person you thought would stay forever drive away. Left behind in their review mirror, you can't help but ask: Why? What did I do to not deserve this person in my life? The thing is, we don't always know what is best for us. We think we do, but we just don't.

Sometimes we have to first experience a heartwrenching goodbye to receive an open door for new opportunity. We don't always understand that. We think goodbye is some form of cruel punishment that we don't deserve. But it isn't. Goodbye can be our chance to grow.

That isn't saying that goodbye will get any easier. But I can promise you, every goodbye that I have ever cried over, something great came from it. Growth, new opportunity, realization and lessons learned. We are human and we will never be immune to the hard feeling of goodbye, but we can take the best from it and accept that whats best for us may not be what we initially thought.

Sometimes, we are the ones saying goodbye.

I have come to find that my hardest goodbyes have not been the ones told to me, but the ones that I have told. Sometimes, I don't immediately know why I am saying goodbye, but I know that there is a reason for it.

Sometimes we have to say goodbye for ourselves.

We can easily get too invested in a friendship and forget to be invested in ourselves. We forget who we are. Sometimes we have to say goodbye to distance ourselves from that; to remember that taking care of our emotional being is important and if anything is keeping you from that, the pain of goodbye is the pain that can help re-develope yourself. I am not saying that being invested in a friendship is a bad thing, we 100% need to be. But we shouldn't be invested to the point that it is toxic to ourselves.

Sometimes, you have to say goodbye because it is just the right thing to do. You may not want to say goodbye. They may not understand why you are saying goodbye, but sometimes, you just know goodbye is what the other person needs in order for theirselves to grow. Sometimes, you just have to be selfless and accept that; Accept that you are doing what is best for them.

We may not want to say goodbye. We may not want to hear goodbye. But what we want isn't what we always need.

Goodbyes are hard, but the hard things make us strong.