Today I said goodbye to a lot of really, really awesome people. Friends. People I would do anything for, and it turns out, people who would do anything for me. That's not an easy thing to do and today was not an easy day. It sucked, frankly.
When I was about 6 years old, my sister and I spent a week at my grandparent's house in Ohio. For me at least, it was the first time I had been away from home for more than a day or two. My aunt and uncle were also there for the week and it was absolutely magical. Simply the fact that they were different from my own parents seemed so, well... cool. And the fact of the matter was that they were cool. We saw fireworks, went to the amusement park, sat out under the stars and looked at constellations. But as it turned out they needed to leave a day or two before we were scheduled to fly home and so they packed up their little yellow Toyota truck, said their goodbyes and headed down the long gravel driveway of my grandparent's house. My sister and I held it together for about 10 seconds and then took off running after their truck and calling their names like a soap opera version of Shane. We caught them just as they turned onto the road and said our goodbyes again, and this time, stood and watched their truck swing down the dogleg, cross the bridge and vanish into a little yellow speck. I'll never forget that supernova of emptiness that engulfed my stomach that day. And while today wasn't that, it wasn't a million miles from it either. Goodbyes are the worst.