August – a month that is filled with goodbyes for college students. It all becomes more real to us as we begin searching for the ideal twin XL bedding and attempting to fit all our clothes into a confined amount of luggage space. We spend two months of summer repeating ourselves when we say, "Oh I leave at the end of August, that's pretty far off." And here we are – the end of August, and it still feels as unreal as it did at the beginning of the summer. The amount of goodbyes I have had to say before I head off to a brand new city is another aspect of how unreal this whole journey feels. But luckily, most of those goodbyes are temporary.
As I have grown older, it's become more and more apparent to me that not everyone in your life now will be in your life in the near or far future. Disregarding the reason, goodbyes are always hard. The worst thing about goodbyes is the uncertainty that follows them. You never really know when the next time you will see the person you just said goodbye to; things can change. Personally, that's how I felt when I had to say my goodbyes to the friends that mean the world to me. We all have different breaks. We all have different plans for when we come home. We have family to visit. These types of goodbyes leave us with so much uncertainty. Although we have this uncertainty, there is a strong bond in these friendships that will overcome the uncertainty.
A point of view that a lot of people don't pay attention to in this situation is the fact that you have these amazing people in your life that have made this enormous impact on your life.
When I've had to say these goodbyes, we've held each other tighter than any other hug because we know we won't be able to see each other the next day just like we usually do. We cherished those last moments we had of driving in each other's cars just blasting music and enjoying each other's company, because we know we won't be able to just drive 15 minutes over to the other's house. We gave those moments more admiration because we were spending them with the people that mean the most to us. We have been lucky enough to make connections with people that we know will not weaken. We have these friends that make us cry when we leave them because they mean that much to us. There's no doubt that the friends that mean so much to you will be missing you as much as you miss them. That just makes the reuniting that much sweeter.
Inevitably, college comes with many goodbyes, but there are so many more hellos. Everyone is going through the same hollowness of saying so many goodbyes and the rest of the unfamiliarity of college. The hidden message we're looking for that's behind the hardest of goodbyes is all the hellos that come after them and all of the satisfying reunions we will get to have.
