There has always been one saying that has helped me see things a little clearer during some of the harder moments in my life, and that is: you can’t have light without the dark.

We wouldn’t know how great the light was if we didn’t have the dark to compare it to.  And here, for me, is the dark part of travel:

Good-byes.

Life on the road comes with its fair share of good-byes: first when you leave home to all your family and friends, then at every different place you visit along the way with the new friends you’ve made.  It definitely goes with the territory.  You’d think after moving to a couple of different countries over my life, I might be better at saying good-bye to my family and friends…but in my opinion, it’s not something I want to get “good at”.   I hate having to leave but I couldn’t do it any other way that in a big crying mess.  To me, that’s what leaving should feel and be like.

Only because I know that on the flip side of that, is the immense joy that comes from running into someone you stayed with in some random hostel in the outskirts of Rome, getting a surprise visit from a friend all the way from the other side of the world, or the  anticipation of the arrivals gate at your hometown airport.  That’s the part that twists the good-byes from darkness into something else, something much less scary…see-you-soons.