Saying goodbye

It was on February of 2004.
A couple of months before that, I stopped school for personal reasons.
A couple of weeks before that, I had dinner with Billy and he invited me to New Zealand.
A couple of days before that, I had begun making preparations to leave.

All that was left was saying goodbye.

Let me tell you how one feels when one is about to say goodbye to both his blood family and the family he's made over the years.

One doesn't think about it.
At least that's what I did.

I don't remember fully what happened that month although some memories stick out.
Predictably, I had dinner with everyone and then we all hung out at my place.

When you're hanging out with everyone, that's when it starts hitting you that you're leaving.
And when one by one, people start going up to go home, that's when you a small panic starts at the pit of your stomach.
You wonder "Can I really do this? Can I really leave this place and not see this people for this amount of time?"
And it drives you crazy because our group isn't a group that's easy to say goodbye to.
Ask all our teachers from high school.

I have vague recollections about my last night, but I remember very vividly a tearful goodbye with Tahnee.
Saying goodbye makes you appreciate the people around and what they're worth to you.
And that night made me appreciate her a lot more.

The thing with leaving is that you don't realize you're leaving until you're about to.
Usually, tasks fill up at the last week that you don't think about leaving because there's too much to do... until it's time to leave.
And that's when it gets hard.

After Feb of 2004, I've been back and I've been gone many times now. I think I do a lot better leaving and going home to a point where it doesn't make me sad as much as it used to. It took a lot of time though, and I think it helps that I'm done at the end of the year.

So why mention all this?
Obviously, everyone knows Jeco is leaving in a few hours.
I wish him a safe trip and that he'll do well in whatever endeavour he faces in Canada.
And it's to let everyone know what it takes to say goodbye to family and friends.
That though it gets easier eventually, the first time is always.. always that much harder.