You know it’s coming, you’ve done it a million times before. You dread its arrival and you try your hardest to put it off.
But the truth is, when you live a transient lifestyle the goodbyes flow thick and fast.
It doesn’t stop at people, family and friends. It overspills into countries, cities and places you form an unbreakable bond with.
I still remember my first goodbye, hugging my mum and waving frantically as I boarded a plane bound for an unknown home on the other side of the world.
It didn’t seem so difficult. Of course, we would talk every day, I would see her in a few months.
Little did I know then, that this was going to be the first of many sad goodbyes. Each one a little different in nature, all of them beautifully bittersweet.
You see, the more you say goodbye the easier it becomes. I think.
Not because you care less, but because you learn to see the collateral beauty in each and every relationship. Whether it’s a friend, a roommate, a stranger you met on the bus, a fellow adventurer, a beach, a house or simply a café.
The lessons learnt from each relationship truly out weigh the sadness of goodbyes.
No doubt, these people and places will fill pages of your journal, clutter up your Facebook and Instagram accounts.
Some may be forged on the crossing of paths and will only survive weeks or months as you pack up and embark on a journey across borders to the next town. Waving goodbye on arrival, swapping numbers, never to be seen again.
More like a ‘see ya later’, in some other part of the world no doubt.
Special ones you will fall head over heels in love with. Some will fill the gaps in your fractured heart.
Those beaches with sand like talcum powder. Sleepy towns that make you feel alive and free. Air that is so heavenly crisp it takes your breath away. The mountains that make you feel so small. Rivers that run as fast as your racing heart. Those tents that you’ve slept in so surprisingly well. All those sunsets that warm your soul, and the sunrises that remind you how alive you are. Those strangers that make you feel at home when you’re so far from home.
And the hardest, those people with open hearts who taught you things you never knew about yourself and made you realise that you’re all the same.
Aren’t these connections the reason we travel? Or at least part of it.
For what would travel be without these people and places?
It’s inevitable that friendships will blossom based on tiny similarities in an environment so eclectically abnormal. Those friends quickly become family as you grow to rely on each other and share inexplainable adventures together.
They will always be there, memories last forever.
One of the best things about travel is the amazing people we meet.
The hardest thing is saying goodbye.
Learn to embrace the sadness for a short time. Don’t cry because it’s over. Revel in the fact you got to experience these wild moments and learnt all these peculiar lessons.
Hold on to them and look forward to meeting them again.
Because for every goodbye on the road, there is for sure another exciting hello.
And so, the cycle will come back around.
