frantic farewells

Sojourner's Highlight: Time won't stop on account of your departure; neither will life become less hectic for you or your friends.

My departure imminent, I spend two days running around Vancouver Island, trying to spend some quality time with my sister. Of course, she's got a million things going on - what with buying a house and all - so she's preoccupied as heck. Then when the tire on her car suddenly needs to be replaced, our final quality time is actually interrupted and ended as she heads to Canadian Tire, and my mother and I head to wait in BC'S Famous Ferry Line-Up.

I guess all I'm saying is the fact that you (ie me) are leaving does not make other people's lives instantly quiet down; they can't drop everything to spend time with you and focus on your upcoming adventure.

Likewise, even if you take a month off work, and commit to spending large amounts of time in relaxation and contemplation, you will still be rushed and frantic a lot of the time as you prepare for your journey. Life has been awesome, very enjoyable, this last month off from work, but it hasn't been slow.

I think the upcoming week provides me a chance to see all the people I want to see; in fact, tears began falling already in some of the preliminary goodbyes. I tried my best, and my friend and I managed to agree to save our tears for the actual last visit together, which will occur as close to Saturday as possible. Hopefully without sounding callous, I've discovered that the closer you are to people, the later you say goodbye to them. Acquaintances might bid you farewell for a week or two in passing. Friends you'll probably see around a week before. Close friends rate a good two days previous. Family and or significant other, of course, deserve both the evening before and the day of - saying goodbye at the last possible minute, at the airport.