Bittersweet Farewell
“Don’t cry because it’s over – smile because it happened.”
Whoever originally said this should be stabbed. With a pair of chopsticks. Immediately.
Of course, I’m smiling as I write this. I went to Japan. I made so many unlikely friends. I learned so many things. My dream happened.
But I am crying, as well. There’s no sappy quote in the universe that can stop me from crying right now. I had to leave a place I consider my second home. I had to part from friends so close I could have sworn I knew them since birth. I had to wake up from my dream and return to Texas. So, yeah, I’m gonna cry.
Saying goodbye was easier and harder than I expected it to be. Easier because I wasn’t nearly as tempted to fulfill my plans of running away and living in Yoyogi park until my parents called in a SWAT team, but harder because I never, ever expected to become this close to a group of kids in such a short amount of time or to fall in love with a place so far from home. I miss my new friends (my roommates in particular), my teachers, my room. I miss eating with chopsticks, rice and seaweed for breakfast, all the tea. I miss Harajuku, Yoyogi, Kyoto.
But the last week wasn’t all about goodbyes. We toured every single shrine and temple we could fit into our schedule, we explored (got lost in) a whole new city, we bonded in a way that only children with nothing and everything in common can. We grew up and acted like five-year-olds, went on midnight missions to the vending machine, laughed and talked about our futures (always forgetting to mention that our AYUSA friends would be vacant from said futures).
The last week, while crazy and hectic and hot, was probably the most fun, in retrospect. Sure, we were without our dear Japanese friends, and we had to adapt to a new environment after so long in Tokyo, but the 31 of grew so close and had so many adventures (and obtained a little bit of sunburn) that it didn’t matter at all.
The memories will slowly fade as we grow older and move on with our lives, but I will never, ever forget the feelings of excitement and fatigue and love that came with that last week. That’s the kind of thing that stays with you until the end.
