Farewells

Leaving is finally becoming real to me, today I said goodbye to Stu, a friend who lives on my corridor, for the next 15 months. I can't really comprehend not seeing these people that I have grown to love for anywhere near that long. The prospect of not seeing my closest friends and family and friends for over a year is scary. Reality has actually kicked in. I might actually cry when I say my big goodbyes.

I hate farewells, something always happens to delay the leaving and so you're left hanging around for ages wanting them to just go away. This was the case today, Stu had planned to leave at 2 but didn't infact leave till quarter to three, I'm a busy woman and can't hang around all day. The prospect of leaving is usually worse than actually leaving and prolonged farewells are just hideous, sitting in the car driving to the airport, it is hard to have a normal conversation that doesn't get down to "I'll miss you". Its not necessarily so bad if you're the one leaving because it is your choice to leave, but when you don't want the person to go, and yet know they have to, it is the worst. Perhaps we should only announce our depatures 5 minutes before leaving, so I should have not told my parents that I'm studying abroad, but wake them up at 5am on the 23rd of August and tell them I'm off to California for a year and the taxi is about to arrive to take me to the bus station. Of course, if you did that you would miss out on the goodbye parties...