Good-Bye

In the past week, I've had to bid a 10-month goodbye to many of my best friends. Oofta. As my friend Kristen put it, "Goodbye is just goodbye"; a statement that grows wiser with age. I always feel as though my goodbyes need to give some sort of closure, to somehow make the departure okay. But that's not a goodbye's job. A goodbye is simply a goodbye.

Why can't we get all the people together in the world that we really like and then just stay together? I guess that wouldn't work. Someone would leave. Someone always leaves. Then we would have to say good-bye. I hate good-byes.
I know what I need. I need more hellos. 
-Snoopy

Well, lookee there; a wish comes true. For as much as I hate goodbyes, bad-byes must be much worse, and I haven't had any of those. I've got nothing but first-time hellos on the other side of the ocean. This has got to be good. Here's to more hellos.