This way?

There are certain situations which triggers a flashback in my mind to being a young boy moving to a new country with my parents. Parting ways with people you care about is one of them, in fact, leaving and the emotions associated with it - love, sense of change, sadness, reminiscence, etc. - have been a huge part of moving and saying 'ciao!'

Saying goodbye to someone is a part of traveling. Meeting new people, seeing amazing and beautiful places, and looking forward is certainly exciting but knowing that it could potentially be a long time before you settle into something similar to the comfort and support network you have created can be a bit melancholic; especially the closer that network has become.

Leaving those people behind for a long time not only reminds me of how fluid and in a constant state of flux life and people are in, but it also reminds me of who I am when I am not traveling. At the end of the day, when I put my gear down, those who want to be captivated by my stories are those who want to understand and get to know me. Essentially, they become the fundamental building blocks of home. For others like me, who cannot associate a home with a concrete location, having that is beyond comforting, it is necessary.

For me, the sad part about saying goodbye to someone is not that you are potentially never going to see each other again, it is the fact that you will be traveling on different roads in life. Where those different roads takes either of you does not matter, what does is the fact that you will each change and continuously grow, just not together. So when you meet in one of many intersections along the way, two, five or ten years later, you may not be meeting that same person again.

I've met up with so many old friends from past lives in Poland, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and England. I've been lucky enough to say that 80% of the time we all hit it off just fine, 10% of the time, it was like we had never been apart and the other 10% left me the feeling that I liked who they were before.

Usually I am the one that would be getting on the plane but when I think of it from the perspective of the one being left behind, I ask myself what else is being affected when someone leaves? The shift in dynamics of your group of friends, friends of that friend that you won't see as often and in general things I would not have thought about in the first place.

My one clear thought as a departee is that I wish I were going too. I can't ever imagine not wanting to move around or continuously travel. As a very recent part of a group of departees (we were all left behind by a close friend), I have to say I am very happy and excited for her. It certainly feels like there is something missing, but that is not a foreign feeling for a group of world travelers. It will be amazing to see where we all end up - I could not even begin to tell you where I think I would, yet wherever we do, it is good to know that there are so many places for us to visit.

Labels: Departee, Departer, Departing, Friends, Travel

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