Didn't Think to Say Goodbye
I had to say goodbye to you for the last time.
We're used to saying 'goodbye' in brief separations.
Some say the best farewell is 'see you next time!'
Perhaps we prefer 'goodbye' to 'see you next time' because we never thought 'goodbye' would be final.
Life is transient, just as I hadn't realized that some people, after saying 'goodbye,' would truly disappear.
Yesterday, a friend called me, and a heavy voice filled the air: 'Xiao Bei is gone.'
Instinctively, I thought Xiao Bei had left the city, and I wondered, 'With the current special circumstances, why did he return to Nanjing so quickly?'
My friend emphasized with a heavier tone: 'Xiao Bei is gone, it was a car accident.'
I was stunned; I never expected that the person who had been lively and bouncing in front of me just a few days ago would suddenly leave like this.
Looking at the countless posts praying for him in my friends' feeds, and that black and white photo, I felt a sense of unreality, more like a dream.
And all I could do was keep dialing that familiar phone, hoping to hear the impatient voice at the other end.
After dialing ten times without anyone answering, I finally had to admit he was gone, and I could only take a deep breath and say to the unanswered phone:
'Xiao Bei, let's say goodbye next time.'
I've always thought there are many ways to say goodbye.
Drinking, traveling, or a sorrowful cry – all are ways of saying farewell.
But after what happened with 'Xiao Bei,' I realized that true farewells are silent and understated.
It's possible that you might meet your last farewell in an ordinary, everyday morning, or in a moment of thoughtful reflection.
And those casual goodbyes become the last rituals for saying goodbye to certain people.
We, who haven't experienced silent farewells, always use lukewarm farewells to say goodbye to those who are important to us.
It's only when we realize we've lost someone that we use regret and remorse to fill those empty spaces that we didn't cherish enough.
After all, 'leaving' is a distant event, so far that it never occurred to us until it suddenly arrived.
So, if possible, hug them before those brief goodbyes.
I don't want you to have the jarring feeling that I did, and I don't want you to have regrets that you don't know how to make up for.
There are many ways to say goodbye, which means there are many sad goodbyes.
Remember when I went to see the movie 'The Missing,' with my girlfriend, she sat in the chair listening to the end credits for a long time.
I asked her what was wrong, and she asked me a strange question: 'What if we broke up?'
I thought for a moment and said, 'Let's have a farewell party, after all, we need a ceremony before separating.'
She said:'I want to express that when we get old, one person will leave first, and the other person should know what to do.'
This question suddenly filled me with fear, because I didn't know how to say goodbye to a situation that was destined to be separated.
After all, these questions were things we had never considered, just like Xiao Bei's departure caught us off guard.
Perhaps it's the farewells that are destined to be said that are the hardest, because some are sudden, while the farewell she described was inevitable.
Because inevitable pain is always greater than sudden pain.
So I figured, since we were going to say goodbye anyway, I didn't think about saying 'goodbye.'
Although we all hate these farewell ceremonies,
But it's undeniable that everyone leaves, and everyone needs to say goodbye.
And all we can do is bid farewell with hope, because we shouldn't be saddened by anyone's departure, and the person leaving shouldn't be anxious about their departure.
Anything has an end, but life must continue, because every farewell brings a new beginning.
So, before saying goodbye with a smile, let's give the other person a gift of happy emotions – this is the best farewell gift.
Finally, I hope you never feel guilty because of sudden departures, nor anxious about the departure that hasn't arrived.
After all, we never thought about saying 'goodbye!'
