Saying goodbye is never easy.
Your personality and who you are saying goodbye to plays a big role in how you leave.
In reality you can’t see everyone. Some people you have to send an email or a quick phone call. Today most news gets around via Facebook or Twitter. This is an easy way to update a larger group of people about your plans, when and where you will be traveling to.
Certain friends will want to get together with you and have one last hurrah. If you have ever been to a going away party for yourself they are tough (at least for me they are). Everyone is there for you. Everyone wants to spend time with you and hear your stories. When you leave, everyone is looking at you! Some people might start to tear up because they will miss you and you will give lots of hugs, but then you will leave and you will have said your goodbye. It is a long night, and goodbyes are never easy, but it does go by very quickly.
The hard goodbye is the slow one. Josh and I moved back to Carmel, Indiana one month prior to leaving for our trip. We did this for a few reasons: our families live within 3 miles of each other so we could spend time with them before we leave, we had a lot of to-dos to get through, and it would help us save money before we left. When we moved back we had already had our going away parties and done the final goodbyes with mostly everyone. The hardest goodbye was with our families, only because it was a month-long goodbye. Every day was one day closer to our departure and one more day they would think about us leaving, but there is always another dinner or our next event together. They heard about all the details of our trip which reminded them of how long we would be gone. Although they were excited for us to go, it was as if we were saying goodbye every day for 30 days, ripping the band-aid off extremely slow.
We were a constant reminder of the next 365 days that we would be gone. Thinking back, we were so grateful that we were able to stay with our parents, save some money and spend time with them before leaving, but we wished the goodbye had been easier!
What was your experience prior to leaving to travel and how did you manage your goodbyes?
Seriously, though, I’m glad you had the time “at home” to say goodbye slowly. We were able to get our “Josh and Caroline fix” to last us for a little while (but not a whole year!). The time was worth it!