Goodbyes are Strange

Lish and I are packing up and moving on this week. In less than 3 days actually. It's strange. I finished up my last week of work last week. It went by quite slowly actually. But then Friday flew by. And Friday was a great day at work. My friend Michelle did a beautiful little set up for me in our break room. It was lovely and I truly appreciated it. (The picture isn't great because I took it with my phone.)Then I had to say goodbye to everyone there. And return my key. Yet I was the last to leave the building. I did a very sneaky job at setting the alarm and getting out with all the doors locked and no key. Very sneaky indeed.

Then we went to church today. Our last time in the Tallahassee 4th ward. My last time in this primary that I've been in for the past two years. The primary president had me come up during closing exercises to tell me thank you and to let all the kids say goodbye to me. It made me tear up. As I was making my way back to the back of the room, all the children were waving to me and saying bye. Before some of them left, they came up and gave me a big hug and told me they'd miss me. Made me tear up again. I had to say goodbye to so many people today, and our goodbyes aren't over. We'll have more tomorrow and Tuesday.

I'm saying goodbye to these people, knowing that I'll never see a majority of them ever again. It's so strange to me, to move on from this phase of my life and know that there is a possibility I'll never be back. I have some friends say to me, "Come back to visit." And I might. But I might not. I don't have family here, I didn't go to school here, and Tallahassee isn't exactly built for tourists. So maybe I'll be back to visit, but maybe not. I honestly can't say. And as excited as I am to be back in Utah and back with family, I'm really going to miss a lot of these people. There are some amazing people here and we've been so blessed and privileged to have built relationships with them.

So although goodbyes are strange and I am walking away knowing that I may never see them again, I know that the place I am walking to and the future we are working towards will be a wonderful one because of these people. They have taught me a lot about life and about myself. And I am grateful for their temporary presence in my life and I hope to run into them again sometime in the future.