It’s been a week of farewells. As one grows older, we bid farewell to more people, more often. (no, I am not talking about life and death, but of leaving people)
I remember that in Kindergarden, I didn’t even know much of what bidding farewell meant. In primary 6 and secondary 4, “last day of school” were BIG things. We held huge parties, wrote autographs, took lots of photos, hugged each other and said our goodbyes, as though we would never meet each other ever again.
By Junior College, I had grown up a little, and I realize that leaving school didn’t mean that the friendships would end just there. Internet made keeping in touch very easy, and we could always meet up over a cup of coffee.
When I was young, daddy would travel overseas occasionally for business trips. Each time, we’d bid goodbye, and I’d make ‘welcome back’ cards for him when he returned. As the years went by, I learnt that these trips were often, and he’d always return. Those ‘welcome back’ cards disappeared, and the ‘goodbyes’ whenever he left for a country, would seem like a normal ‘goodbye’ whenever a dad leaves for work each day.
However, no matter how easy ‘farewells’ seem nowadays, there are still some that I still can’t bring myself to say. The farewell last year was hard. We were brought together by chance, from countries all over the world, meeting together in a foreign land halfway across the globe. We hit the first day we met, and explored the States together. We had only each other, thus we bonded at an alarming rate. 5 short months later, we bid goodbye. After that day, we’d return to our own countries. Our own lives. And because we’re from different lands, simply meeting up for a cup of coffee would not be THAT easy anymore. Not knowing when we’d meet each other after that goodbye, we were terribly sad. Nonetheless, having picked up a little of the American way of life, we partied our hearts out even on the last night together. ^_^
That same month, I bid farewell to yet another friend. We had promised to meet up again soon after. I didn’t know, that that would be the last goodbye. I never saw that friend ever again. I never will.
Yesterday, Bora left. Bora is a Korean exchange student who’s been studying in NUS the past 10 months. A few of us woke up at 5+ to send her off at the airport at 7am. We don’t know when we’d meet again. Even more, she didn’t know when she’d see ALL her friends she’d made in
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So many years down the road, I’ve re-found many of those primary/secondary school friends whom I had once bid farewell to. People whom I haven’t met for up to 15 years, people whom I thought had walked away from my life forever. I haven’t met them in person, but I found them on facebook. At least, we’re in contact. ^_^
Over the next 2 months, I’d be going to
It’s difficult having friends all over the place. It’s hard to say goodbye to people you know you wouldn’t be able to meet up with easily. But, looking at it from a more optimistic point of view, it’s nice to know people from all over the world.
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Today, I said the happiest farewell. The whole group organized a farewell party for me. My 2 bosses made a really funny speech (and thanks MinTea for taping it all down).. and we had yummy food. Why is this farewell so happy? Just like bigboss said.. this is a 2-in-1 party. A farewell party, and at the same time a welcome-back party. It’s not going to be a forever-goodbye kinda party. I don’t like leaving pple. So we just had fun together ^_^
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