Say Goodbye
Saying goodbye is one of the toughest thing in our life. I am not talking about the “goodbye” that you say to your pet every day when you leave home. It is the “goodbye” that you say when you won’t see each other again in a short period of time. Or when You know there is very rare chance for everyone to meet in this place again. Or when you know this joyful and unforgettable moment only happens once in a life. Yet, you still have to say it out. Goodbye!
When I get older and older, I notice the frequency of saying goodbye goes up. The last summer to me was definitely a season of goodbye. It is so frequent that I don’t even have time to settle and the next goodbye is coming close.
At the beginning of July, I said goodbye to the teammates that I worked together with in Beijing entrepreneurship camp for 10 days. It was an intensive program. We often brainstormed crazy new ideas, made powerpoints and discussed silly things until midnight. It was so unbelievable that we changed the entire idea the night before presentation but still got first runner-up. Yet, we still needed to say goodbye to each other.
Then, my one-year internship ended in mid-July and I said goodbye to the colleagues and my bosses. Originally, I thought I wouldn’t feel sad because I finally had more free time to do my favourite things. However, when I left the company and sat on the ship crossing the Victoria Harbour, I felt sad when I realized I may not have chance to work with the same group of people anymore.
On the same night, I and another friend had a farewell dinner with our best friend in high school. He would go to the US to study graduate program for 5 years. As always, we ended up sitting in the McDonald and talking about the past, future, politics and anything interesting until midnight. But we still said goodbye.
Two days after, I flied to Beijing again and joined another entrepreneurship program. I was in a very funny team that we called our leader as “Mama”. We always argued and made jokes about each other but it never affected our friendship. I still remembered we all went to a cake shop and chatted for two hours. Again, I said another goodbye.
Then I visited my cousin’s family in Seattle. Their daughters are so lovely. The younger one always screams inside the car until my cousin hugs her. The older one love to ask same questions repeatedly. “How many people in my home?” It was so funny to stay there for a week before I said goodbye.
Sitting in front of the computer and typing this post, I am glad that I don’t cry out loud. But do I need to say more goodbye? I hope not but life is full of goodbye and I need to get used to it. Perhaps I should not just treat goodbye as an end but also a start.
