The Power of Goodbye
The last few weeks, I’ve found myself walking around the city of Chicago, the place I’ve called home for the last 31 years, in a bit of a nostalgic stupor. I’ve encountered so many “last time I’ll do…” moments that I could write an entire post just about the meaning behind particular places, events, and activities.
But I won’t.
Because when I sit and reflect on getting ready to leave this city – I’m just so damn happy to be doing so. Not that all the memories, the friends, the experiences weren’t and aren’t meaningful – but exactly because they were.
You see, I so strongly believe that our lives are meant to be lived as stories. And each chapter leads to the next (unless its a choose-your-own-adventure, in which case its a little more random, which can be fun too). So the greatest way to honor and treat the memories, people and experience of the past is to move on from them. You created an experience – whether it was a relationship, a great night out, or living with a particular roommate – for a reason, to learn a lesson, or to see something new about yourself. If you’ve done it, to hold onto it would almost be a crime. You’re robbing yourself of so much more. And possibly robbing other people or places of the opportunity for new influences, new friendships, new experiences of their own.
So from my perspective, while saying goodbye to an old life, or an old way of life can be grievous, sad and reflective – instead I choose to honor those that led me to this place with a simple goodbye. Creating space both for them to have new experiences of their own, without me in them, but more importantly – so I can do so as well.
I look forward to whatever adventure waits for me when I get off that plane in San Francisco, 14 hours from now. I have no idea what it will look like, tho I know that it’ll look nothing like the past. And that, to me, is the gift. That’s the power of a goodbye. It creates space – and when there is space, there is endless possibility.
