Here Comes Goodbye

This past month, I have been really blessed with amazing friends and family. It never really struck me on how important they are to me till last night. My sister in laws mother flew in from Japan last monday and is flying out today at 9:30 AM. At first it was very awkward because she speaks no English and we speak no Japanese so her daughter had to translate the entire time. She has amazed me a lot. She raised my sister in law all by herself, in Japan she works as a daycare caretaker, who is constantly getting injuries from the little kids and very little pay. She sent her daughter to America for a chance at an education and worked her entire life to provide for her child and she still is. She has no family in Japan except for some brothers and sisters who live a 4 hour bus ride away, so basically she never sees them. Last night we went down to Federal Way and pigged out on an all you can eat Korean BBQ. When we got back to the house we realized that here comes the goodbye. We all sat in the living room, we learned a lot more about her mom. Seeing the mother and daughter having to separate like that was quite depressing. Its ironic the people who doesn't care to be together are together and whereas those that do can't be. I was never a family type person, I grew up like that and is still like that, but after seeing how they are so sad from leaving each other is very touching and makes me reflect on how I should be grateful that I can drive 15 minutes to see G'ma White even though I don't.

I've never truly felt what it means to say goodbye. I've always used the excuses that I don't do goodbyes and I don't do keeping in touch so that I'm able to keep myself at a distance from any sort of emotional connection. But we all have to say our goodbyes at some point in our lives whether its moving to another state or by death, we take it and we move on. And if we are lucky we grow from each goodbye. So instead of avoiding the goodbyes, we should embrace it and use it to grow stronger.

-R