We've all heard the songs, seen the movies and read the how-to's. But when the time comes we are never, and will never be fully prepared to turn our backs and walk away. To walk away is to make the parting official, and the only time we like things to be "official" is when its something that we want; something that, in its finished state, makes us step back and admire that thing that we worked so hard to be apart of. The craft behind goodbyes is not that its goodbye, in a sense, its our mind telling us that this—whatever this is— may be the thing that makes your handwork nothing more than a fleet of hope towards a figment of your imagination.

Goodbyes are never fun. Sure there are always exceptions to any statement, but 99.9% of the time, goodbyes are the shadows that stick around in your nightmares. I always pictured goodbyes like drowning; fighting desperately to stay above the water, grasping for that last breath, wanting nothing more than to just breathe, but something keeps pulling you down. The metaphor is a little graphic, but anyone who has had to really say goodbye can relate. I've decided that only way to survive is to grow a tail and gills and swim to shore yourself.

But some of us can't do that. You just have to keep fighting. At some point or another someone will see you and come to the rescue. Or, if you're in the middle of the ocean than maybe if you pray hard enough God will grant you those special scales. Either way, the key word here is fight...and never give up. That's a good one too.

But to the person that this is written towards, you know who you are. You're the person that turned my world upside down. You're the person that knows me more than anyone else on this planet does. You're the person that would drive almost three hours with me to a sunflower field, only to find out that they all died about a month before we got there. You're the person that would sit with me in the park bench under a full moon and listen to the train run by, all while getting eaten alive by mosquitos. Or the person that would take me to Taco Bell at midnight to get two Beefy Nacho Loaded Grillers just to celebrate that we studied for more than a hour for a test thats in eight.

So here's to you.

I hope that your journey becomes all that you wanted. I hope that you continue to dream big and work hard. Never give up. But most importantly I hope that you find whatever it is you're looking for. And if you don't, hopefully your close enough to a shore that I can come and save your ass.