Always saying Goodbye

Always saying Goodbye

Have you ever said goodbye to anyone? Well I have many times. Too many. I am a military brat. I don’t know why they call us that. Is it because we get to see the world? Or because we get better privileges? Is it because our parents go overseas and fight in the war? I don’t know. But I can tell you it’s not as great as it seems. I have said goodbye to friends and family. Sometime it can be good to get away from people. But the majority of the time it just stinks.

It all started when I was a couple of weeks old. I moved from New York to Missouri. I lived at an Air Force base called Whiteman. I grew up there, and I thought that was the place I would call home. I made great friends and had a lot of good times. I lived there for 7 years. Right after 9/11 the air force stationed us to Germany. I thought it would be the worst place I ever lived. I was wrong.

When I moved to Germany I made so many friends. That in three years I had known and said bye to at least two hundred people. During the summer after 4th grade I had to say goodbye to my best friend Rachel. We had been friends in Missouri and in Germany. It was the second time I had said a final goodbye to her. The first was when she moved to Germany 6 months before us. I remember I just kept thinking why does she have to leave? Why does my only childhood memory have to leave? That following summer I had to say bye to my other close friend Taylor. I still remember that Saturday night we were all hanging out at our friend Brianna’s house. And I just kept thinking “this isn’t happening. Why does everybody leave?” By the time I got to 6th grade I learned that life isn’t a fairy tale and things happen even though we don’t want them.

My 6th grade year was the best year I had in Germany. I made two great friends that I hung out with everyday after school and on weekends. Every Saturday we would play outside and wait for the ice cream man to come. Jenae and I would drink hot chocolate outside when it was raining and hide in the house meister’s work shop. Jenae, Carolyn and I would play color tag, and play mummy, mummy on the trampoline. In the summer Jenae and I would wear winter jackets and put bicycle helmets on. We would swat at June bugs with metal tennis rackets. Then Carolyn would run around screaming. We had so many good memories. However that summer I moved. I remember I was at church it was the day before I left, hysterical, I could barely breathe, I was crying so much. My church was like my other family. Everyone knew everyone. Our church had 15 people when we got there and when we left there were about 150 people. So everyone knew us. We were one of the most involved in our church. So it was just as hard on them.

When we moved to New Jersey it was the hardest thing I had ever been through. The whole summer I just talked to my friends through e mail and MySpace. I was very depressed, and I felt like a loner. I felt life was going on without me, and that it never would catch up. I had no friends going into school. And I’m really shy, so by the time I made friends I wouldn’t let them see who I really was. About half way into the school year my close friends got to see the true side of me.

Saying goodbye stinks, it’s the worst thing that happens in life. I am just thankful that I have a family to go through this with. That’s probably why I am so close to my family. Have you ever said goodbye to a friend? A family member who moved? A neighbor? I have.