How Do We Say Goodbye?

Read if you wanna know 'cause only those words will make sense.

For all of you in and beyond, please sit and listen as only you can really understand what I'm going to say. Anyone under that, I pray you heed my words here. You'll find no truer nor more painful words in all the 'Verse (Universe for all of you not into 'Firefly').

All durring your gradeschool days, things seem so simple, almost dreary. It's the same, repetitive walk. Same friends, same teachers (at least for the year), same annoyances... everything is so predictable. In junior high and high school, there's really no change, except of course that you have a football, basketball, and volleyball team and track is now exclusive to atheletics. It seems so ordinary, but what doesn't anymore?

So, pushing all that aside and jumping into a new quandry, let me ask you something: How long do you think you could last if you left it all? Any of you seniors (or the closest of whoever is reading this), what would it be like if you couldn't hang with the friends that you had nearly spent every day with? Hell, what would it be like to not see your parents each day?

I know what you're thinkin', though, 'cause I thought the same thing you did. I couldn't wait to leave myself, and for more reasons than one (as we all have ours). My first night being in my new apartment, I felt so excited and alive! It was such a liberating feeling, being on my own and no parent to tell me what to do... and then... it wasn't just my parents that were gone...

My friends, the ones that had kept me sane (or insane, take your pick) had left too... And they were always busy with school. The one thing that had kept us together for so long was keeping us apart. Sure, I went to a high school football game or three... but I couldn't always get there. I couldn't do anything like I had before.

And now, not even a full year after I'm out of high school, I already miss it all. The people I once called family are little more than memories in the back of my mind, my parents kind strangers that I no longer notice as I once had, and what's worse: memories fade. Names are erased as the years roll by you... faces taken by vicious little imps of old Father Time; can you stand that existence? 'Cause I gotta tell ya...

It's killin' me. Fast.

So, I leave you all from this short column, and I hope you all take the time to think about this. Everything will never be the same... don't realize that when it's too late.