Why is it that goodbyes seem to get harder and harder as you say goodbye to a person? I asked myself that this morning as I kissed my boyfriend goodbye as he traveled back home to Europe. The pain that you go through isn’t fair. Goodbyes should be illegal. I know sometimes you can’t avoid it and have to say “goodbye," but even when you anticipate it and know that it is coming, it still seems to be painful.

Being the young college girl I am, while on my drive home I came up with a poem in my head. I know “goodbyes” are not all bad, like the one this morning my boyfriend tells me not to be sad because, “this is definitely not our last goodbye," but still not having the person who you care about physically with you, or close by can be very frightening. Goodbyes are just hard when it comes to relationships they are hard period. Everyone says those heart wrenching words, “peace," "ciao," "farewell," or "see you later," no matter how you may say it they are never really easy to say.

Goodbyes are never fun, I mean I could think of worse things in life, but saying goodbye is up there with hard things to do. Growing up I feel like we are taught from day one that “hellos” are much better than “goodbyes”. Why is that though? Shouldn’t we promote that goodbyes just mean your love and feelings for that person grows stronger through distance. Shouldn’t we teach the beauty of that first kiss and hug after not seeing each other over a period of time.

I think as humans it is good to learn what it is like to miss someone. I believe it is good to miss someone because then when you share your time together you appreciate the moments that you spend with one another. Maybe teaching that to children will keep the tears from falling down faces as the word is said at airports, train stations and parking lots. Distance is hard, goodbyes are so painful, but in the end a goodbye doesn’t represent an ending it represents the beauty of embracing one another soon. I am not a poet so this poem is actually quite embarrassing, but I believe it describes the realness of our dreaded friend “goodbye”.

Oh, my dear friend goodbye

You make me cry

You tell me that it gets easy

But that is a lie

My friend time keeps warm

My friend love keeps me alive

But you my pal are like a storm

Poems are not my thing

As you can probably tell

A friend like you

Hurts like hell

Today my sky is blue

It is not easy dealing with you

Saying goodbye may bring tears leaving me wondering, “what to do”

Goodbyes are not forever

I will be greeting my love soon, so to you all I can say is whatever

Something that I have learned and it is completely true is that distance really does make the heart grow fonder. Maybe instead of always being sad about a goodbye, we should treat them as a good life lesson?