I am someone who is horrible at farewells. I can hardly shake the fact that change is completely inevitable, and good even. My younger cousin told me a couple of years ago that it isn't goodbye but, "see you later." And I am constantly banking on the "see you laters" of life.

Sometimes your biggest roadblock is time, and sometimes your biggest obstacle is yourself. I started writing to stop avoiding my biggest obstacle, and to start going through it, instead of around it. Everyone has a little bit of save the world inside of themselves. It's the greatest part of being human.

Writing was my version of that part of the "save-the-world" me. It was a constructive way to express how we look at the world. It was the way I learned self-reflection. As a whole, I think that's what the arts do, and I think that's how we thrive.

You write to change the world, or maybe just your community, your neighborhood, your street.

Or maybe you just do it to save yourself.

Because everyone you meet will have a story that is worth being told. Everyone will have a story that will help save a part of yourself or remind you of yourself. Your story happens to save someone else's cliffhanger.

It's why we write. It's why we write honestly, I think that's important to realize. Your mistakes, your "dirty laundry," your experiences, thrive for others to remember. Testimony is more than a legacy. It survives for a reason.

What we write on paper, or say out loud, sticks around forever --even when it seems fleeting.

What we write serves as a reminder that we aren't all that different; we aren't all as alone as we seemed to be. It serves as the blessings to the curses of life. Our words of encouragement save our world. And sometimes just our own individual world.

Sometimes our books and our testimonies must come to a close. It's the bittersweet ending to just one novel of our personal series. It's our own personal farewell to a special chapter in our life. Our testimonies are page-turners; they're thrillers; they're heartbreaking; they're hilarious; they're boring, technical, logical.

And they're special.

So here's to my own personal, very lovely, very challenging, but very rewarding, see you soon. It's been a pleasure.