“It’s not a goodbye, it’s just a see ya later.” Most notoriously known as, the catch phrase on repeat of every soon to be college freshman leaving their best friends and loved ones for college in just a few short days or weeks. It’s a phrase of reassurance to the day we all knew would come but could not quite see when entering the halls of high school freshman year. All that was on your mind that day was finding the Brooke Davis to your Peyton Sawyer and being happy in the comfort of your high school halls, with unfamiliar faces that actually would become the heart of your stories over the next four years of your life. Little did you know in that moment, when all you worried about was finally getting an iPhone and telling your mom that it’s really OK to not have a backpack anymore -- how much all those unfamiliar faces would really all come to mean to you.

They would become the faces that would see you rise to your highest and be there to pick you up at your lowest. They would see you make the most embarrassing Facebook statuses of your life, but it was okay because they were making them too. They would be the same faces to suffer through that English class that nobody wanted to take, and text in the class group chat complaining with you about how much they didn’t want to write the paper. Thus, making it a little less brutal all while giving you a valid excuse for not starting yours yet. And until then, you didn’t know that there would be anyone aside from your mom that could turn your tears into laughter. You didn't know that you would find people that could push you every day to be a happier and better version of yourself. You especially didn’t know how special friendship could really be and that you would be lucky enough to find people in your life that knew what you were going to say before you even said it. You didn’t think that their moms or dads would know not to put onions in the sauce when you were coming over for dinner, because they knew you hated that. You had no idea they would be the same faces that started as friends and would end as family, showing you family are not just those who share your blood. And greatest of all, you definitely didn’t think it would be this hard to just say, see ya' later.

We said it every day when parting in the halls, getting in our cars or walking off the fields. “See ya later... See ya' tomorrow.” It was a way to end long conversations after school in the halls, or to your best friend every time you parted. It was a phrase that was almost taken for granted because you knew at 7:45 a.m. the next morning everything would be in place all over again. Your teachers would pass in the halls watching you finish their homework on the floor beneath your locker, your best friend would be waiting down the hall, and the place that was once uncomfortable became your home away from home.

Now, we are actually saying, “See ya' later,” and we actually are learning the meaning of the phrase. It won’t really mean see you tomorrow anymore, because now, it really means, see ya' in three months or maybe more. It is hitting its true meaning and it’s not one we want to actually use anymore. But know, when saying see ya' later, no matter how hard or sad that it is -- your best friends will be off turning their dreams into reality, and your family will always be there to remind you how much they love you. The phrase reminds you how lucky you really were to be able to say it all these years and be reassured by the fact that later was just over 12 hours away or if you really needed it-- a five-minute car ride to your best friends house.

Now, we are reassured by the fact it is just a see ya' later, and not a goodbye. Although, the hardest we ever thought a see ya' later would ever be, we know deep inside as much as we want to deny it, it’s time to say it and say hello somewhere else. But when later comes around in a few months and we are reunited with our high school friends and lives-- a part of our lives that made us who we are today, we will feel a sense of warmth in the fact that it wasn’t a goodbye and all that meant so much to our teenage years, means even more now. So we say see ya later, not in the sense of going home, eating your favorite home cooked meals, and doing homework, but instead to take on new adventures, make the world your oyster, and finding yourself, all while still loving those whom you never thought could mean so much to you. So, here’s to see ya' later, and being grateful to have something in your life that makes saying it so hard.