I hope this isn't goodbye but simply “see you later”

because the hardest goodbye is from those whom you're not ready to let go.

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At some point during our lifetime, people will come into our lives. We'll meet them, get to know them and even make friends with them but they aren't meant to stay. They are meant to just be a phase in our life, and the sad thing is, we already know that, the exact same moment we learned about their names.

Even with that thought we still hope that, if we are unable to keep them for long this time, we'll cross paths again someday. We wish for second chances knowing that our first will eventually come to an end.

Most of the best people we meet are never meant to stay. They are meant to make us feel intimidated as they appear to have a strong aura but later on makes you feel home. They are meant to make you think they are the bad guys but later on realize that they're just someone who knows how to take responsibility for their actions. They are meant to teach you that playing safe isn't always the best option but to have the confidence to show everyone who you truly are and have the courage to face the consequences of it.

Most of the best people we meet are never meant to stay. They are meant to be there to laugh with us at one table during lunch time and share stories together. To offer us chairs during break times when they see there's nothing more left and gladly give up theirs just so we could eat comfortably.

Most of the best people we meet are never meant to stay. They are meant to offer us tangerine and ask about it later telling us it was an apple, a unique humor not everyone can get. To patiently teach us a lesson, never complaining when we asked a lot of questions but gladly explaining things step by step to make sure we got the answer we are asking for.

Most of the best people we meet are never meant to stay. They are meant to speak the same language as us amidst those who don't, which makes us feel more understood as we express ourselves better in the language we speak of.

Most of the best people we meet are never meant to stay. They are meant to make the first move to know more about us and try to learn the language we speak and try to understand us. They are meant to ask what specialties the town we came from prepares. They are meant to leave us with a silent goodbye with a thought that we’re not going to see them again yet appear just in time to bid goodbye when it's our time to be the one saying it.

Most of the best people we meet are never meant to stay. They are meant to make us feel accepted for who we are, to tell us that it's okay to not know everything. They are meant to make us realize that even if time is limited with them, we are still capable of making something we'd never forget even if time does.

That's why some of us are afraid to form deeper relationships if we know that a person will only remain temporarily in our lives. We avoid deeper connections with them, avoid asking them further questions to get to know them more. But at the end, we'll only regret doing it and hope that we'll get another chance to form more memories because that's what all remains after we bid our goodbyes to them.

We'd like to laugh more at one table at lunch, share more stories, talk about favorites, likes and dislikes, and other things to find common ground.

For some, they'd still choose to form deeper relationships. They'd ask more questions to get to know them more, exchange contacts with the thought that it's what could at least make them feel connected. They still choose to form more memories because they know it's all that they'd be left with after goodbye.

Either way, goodbyes are truly hard when you're not yet ready to let them go. Some say, silent goodbyes are the worst, yet for some, it is for those you're not yet ready to lose.

We'd hope for more time when we come to realize that we don't have enough. We ask for time to hit pause so we could still be in the moment and don't want it to end any time soon. Each day that ends feels more and more harder as we realize how little time we have left with them.

And when the time for goodbye finally comes, we'll find ourselves unable to face the reality that we're never going to get to laugh at the same table again during lunch. That if we say that word, the lessons we learned would disappear throughout time as memories slowly fades, slowly losing its details. And that our memories about them will slowly fade and make us think twice if it did really happen or it was just a dream we experienced that somehow felt too real.

Goodbyes were never easy when they come from the people we are not yet ready to lose. So, I hope this isn't goodbye but simply “see you later”.