Saying goodbye is one of the stranger things one can do.

There's such a wide range of circumstances which the words can be used. If you're lucky they come out when you're hanging up the phone, or leaving for work. They mean something temporary, something minor. They are just another version of "see you soon!" Or "talk to you later."

Or, maybe it's a nonverbal thing. Maybe it's the last straw with a person who continuously hurts you. The goodbye could be you putting your foot down in a toxic relationship and comes out as "good riddance." The "good" isn't so much for wishing them the best, but praising yourself for having the courage to leave when it's time.

Though one's passive and one's aggressive, these are both relatively "good" goodbyes. The first is allowing the other person to go and grow, and come back better. The second is allowing yourself to go and grow, and maybe never come back. But, there's this other type of farewell, as Shakespeare calls it, "a parting," which he goes on to explain is such sweet sorrow. How very true that is.

A parting I classify as a prolonged goodbye, one that is whispered just a bit louder every day closer to the departure. Whether it is you who is leaving or the other person, the feeling is exactly the same. Your time together is being cut off unavoidably by something predestined. The goodbye is approaching and yet when it comes, you both are taken completely by surprise. The words come out muffled, tears spew, and at that moment all you wish for is one more text that says, "I'm on my way!" or one more day to lay in each other's bed.

With college just around the corner for me, and my friends setting off one by one—I've had to come to terms with this last goodbye scenario in ways I never imagined I could. Though I knew it was bound to happen, I never thought I could look my best friends in the face, both our eyes flooded, and say, "I know it's going to be okay." Even if truly, I don't.

There's absolutely no way around it, these partings are god awful. But, there's a reason Shakespeare adds "sweet" to the term "sorrow." Partings may not be mindless, like hanging up the phone. But they surely don't have to be permanent, like saying good riddance. They are a test of will, they make you reevaluate what matters to you. Being apart doesn't mean staying apart, and though it seems earth-shattering when circumstances separate you from your favorite people, when you reunite your bond will be that much stronger because of them.

So let them go, or let yourself go, and know that "hello" is just a phone call, just a calendar date, just a plane ticket, just a bus ride away.