See You Later; See You Soon

"Though our paths diverge now, they'll rejoin in the end.

See you later; see you soon my dear friend."

According to the flight status displayed proudly atop my browser window, I am one hour and eight minutes from Baltimore where I’ll stop for a bit before beginning the last leg of my journey to Atlanta, Georgia.  Homework finished, I’ve found myself with a rare bit of time for wandering thoughts, and it’s no surprise to me where they’ve wandered.

Twelve years ago, I started saying goodbye to missionaries, and I clearly remember singing through tears as the court was together for the last time before Brett’s mission.  I can’t believe how quickly those twelve years have passed.  I’m married now, with a son who’s six months away from baptism.  I have a house of my own, and really, a whole life of my own that never existed back then.

Yet here I am again saying farewell, and it all feels so the same.  Promises to write, contemplation of how life will feel different without a few key people in it.  And as seems to be standard for me, I can’t help but seeing the crazy way everything seems connected. 

I said goodbye to my brother yesterday morning as he left for the MTC.  I said goodbye to my friend Skyler this morning as I left for the airport (he’ll enter the MTC while I’m in Georgia).  But sometime in the next eight days, I’ll be at Six Flags over Georgia with the same best-friend-turned-brother-in-law Brett that I had to say goodbye to when he left for his mission, when he left for school in Louisianna, and when he took my sister to Georgia to start their lives together.

Back when I was 18 and saying goodbye, it seemed so epic.  Now it just seems so natural.  It still seems weird that I won’t get sarcastic comments on my Facebook posts from Jack and that Skyler has to take a hiatus from our Killer Bunnies games.  But they’re both headed right where they should be, and that makes it all okay. 

Life was just too crazy for me to have a moment to sit at the piano to say farewell.  Plus Jack would have laughed at me.  But the sentiments I had when Brett (and Phil, Chris, Brant, and Jason) left seem even more perfect this time around.

"Though our paths diverge now, they'll rejoin in the end.

See you later; see you soon my dear friend."