All throughout the day I find myself saying "hello" to tons of people. I'm not even quite sure exactly how many because I'm the type of person who will say it to a complete stranger if I make eye contact with them. Hellos always seem so simple, don't they? It's the goodbyes that really tug on the heartstrings.
I have been in a long-distance relationship with my boyfriend for three years now and saying goodbye even for one week is enough to make me cry for the whole dreadful and construction-filled drive back to Bowling Green State University. Goodbye seems so final in so many ways.
I had to say goodbye to one of my best friends who I thought would be by my side not only throughout college, but for all of the big things in life as well. I had to say goodbye to one of my other best friends who moved away far too soon, knowing that things won't be as easy as they once were. As much as we'd like to deny it, life gets in the way far too many times.
The hardest goodbye by far was to my yiayia, which is "grandma" in Greek. I lived next door to her for my entire life and saw her every single day until I went off to college. She passed away from cancer. I struggled with how exactly to say goodbye to someone when you thought that you had forever, as naive as that sounds.
I found myself not knowing what to talk about. Conversation was always so easy and natural between the two of us and, for the first time in my life, I was at a loss for words. Do I tell a joke? Do I explain to them how much they mean to me and how I will try to make them proud? What is the right thing to say when saying goodbye for the last time?
However, I had the chance to say goodbye. Some people aren't as fortunate. I had the chance to say everything that I could muster at that very moment and I could've chosen not to hold anything back if that's what I wanted to do. Some people have their loved ones taken from them so suddenly that their last conversation may have been something so inconsequential that it makes them want to say everything that they need to while they still can.
I know that the older you get, the more goodbyes that you will have to say. Let's face it, that is life and no one and nothing lives forever. There's always a time in your life when someone who you know becomes someone who you knew, no matter how badly we don't want it to happen.
Goodbye is my least favorite word because it means slowly getting used to not having that person or place. Goodbye means learning to grow and live without something. Goodbye is so final and scary.
