Saying Goodbye

I've always felt that the goodbyes that hurt the most are the ones that could be forever. With close friends and family, goodbye possesses a purely ephemeral sadness---the feeling that it will be some time again before you can be hugged, or kissed, or tell inside jokes in the ways that only those closest to you ever can. But the sadness that accompanies an unknown parting---a maybe i'll see you again, is far harsher. Perhaps it's silly to think of that, when in just a year the entirety of BYP will enter together as freshmen in the class of 2016, but that reality is so different from the one we are entering right now. When we say goodbye tomorrow and travel to our respective sites, it is both the beginning of a close friendship with four other individuals and the possible closure of one with fifteen others. A year from now, the people whom we met two days ago will no longer exist. We will all have been transformed into wholly different individuals. And though I realize this may be too pessimistic, and that there will be opportunities to renew friendships first formed over the past four days, the thought that some may be lost still saddens me. With BYP in front of us we all have something uniting us despite our differences; only time will tell if it will serve as the same strong glue once it is in the rearview mirror.

But nonetheless, tomorrow still holds more excitement than melancholy, and I know adventures await in Serbia. My bags are packed, and my luggage scale says I've got .6 pounds of extra weight, so I'm ready to board that Swiss Air plane and GO!!!! I can't say for sure how I'll do with the language, or the stress of a new culture, but that's the fun of it all. It's all in the challenge, without which there could be could be no metaphorical victory and thusly no personal growth. And personal growth is one of my biggest reasons for taking this trip. I want to return a year from now having a better idea about who I am, what I believe, and how precisely I want to live my life. Which, unfortunately, requires me to say goodbye to do. And there's the lesson, the ironic truth: in every lost opportunity, another is gained.