The End

 Quotes of the Week

“True goodbyes are the ones never said or explained.” ~Author Unknown

“Never part without loving words to think of during your absence. It may be that you will not meet again in this life.” 

and

 “Man's feelings are always purest and most glowing in the hour of meeting and of farewell.~Jean Paul Richter

Songs of the Week

1. Sooner or Later, Mat Kearney

2. Little Lion Man by Mumford and Sons

3. Goodbye by Secondhand Serenade

Sometimes, I honestly just think the French get it more than we do. The words that make up their language just capture in a clearer, purer way the emotions that they convey with them. The best example I can give you of this is how they bid each other goodbye. There are two ways to say it: adieu and au revoir. The other day in French class, my teacher told us the difference between these two phrases, which, until then, I had considered interchangeable. "Au revoir translates into 'Until I see you next'," she said. "Adieu is what you say when you know you'll never see that person again. When you say adieu, you're saying goodbye forever."


Goodbye forever. That hit me hard. The first thing I thought about was how to bid adieu to someone who was going to die. How often do people regret their last words to a late relative or friend? I know I do. The last conversation I had with my grandmother consisted mainly of me giggling and watching TV while she tried to extract details of our vacation from my unwilling lips. I remember being in a hurry to get off the phone. I was going to a friend's house and didn't have time to waste by talking to her. The next day, we got a phone call: Grandma had had a major stroke, and she would never walk, talk, live independently or have a phone conversation with me ever again. Though we got to see and talk to her every Sunday for the next three years while she lived at the nursing home, I didn't feel that that made up for the fact that the last conversation I had with her would be forever tainted by my immaturity and flat out rudeness. I said goodbye to her many a time through those three years, but everytime I kissed her withered cheek and whispered Iloveyou in her ear, I was haunted by our last conversation. I prayed that she could understand me now, enough to know that I was sorry for treating her the way I did. I wanted a do-over. Because even though every Sunday, I wished her the English equivalent of 'au revoir', until I see you again, I wasn't talking to my grandma. Just the shell she had left behind. I wanted to talk to her on that June day, back when I was fresh out of sixth grade. I wanted to give her a genuine 'adieu,' a genuine goodbye forever. Though it's impossible for me to go back in time and bid my dear grandmother adieu, I make sure that every time I talk to a grandparent, cousin, aunt, uncle or best friend, I say goodbye like it's the last time I'll speak with them. I tell them I love them, and make sure I feel at peace with the way our conversation ended. Because you never know when that untilthenexttimeIseeyou goodbye will turn into a goodbyeforever goodbye. And that can haunt you for life, just as long as the forever that you'll be without that person.


But what about the adieus not caused by death? The ones that are voluntary. The ones that you regret later. The ones you wish you could take back. These are the goodbyes forever that I'd beg you to reconsider. Saying goodbye forever, burning that bridge may seem like the only fitting way to get that person out of your life. It's not. Say goodbye for a while, not an eternity. Don't throw out the opportunity to say hello again by letting your in the moment feelings get caught up with you. If you're that passionate about the person, chances are you'll want to talk to them again. Why send someone out of your life forever when you've only spent such a small fraction of that time with them?

Think about your goodbyes. There are the ones that you'll always regret, and there are the ones that you don't have to. From now on, when you tell someone "Until the next time I see you," make sure that you would feel satisifed having that be the way you bid them "Adieu."