Goodbye

Hey ya'll! I'm pretty stoked because today I have Carmen from We See the Same Stars and guess what?! I'm her first :) Ha ha I feel very honored that she is debuting her guest blogging skills on my blog. Be sure to go check her out. She's a brand new Marine bride but not new to being with a Marine guy. She's super sweet and caring and I just adore her.

"First, I’d love to extend my gratitude and thanks to Mrs. S. for letting me post on her blog. I’m utterly honored she was happy to host me. Second, I’ve been reading guest posts from Mrs. S. and they have all been wonderful, interesting, and I’ve loved reading all of them. However, I was really unsure of what to talk about. This is the first time I’ve guest blogged for anyone so I’m slightly nervous. With much thought, I finally came up with something to write about and just in case, get your tissues ready.

I wanted to talk about one word. The word that most people dread saying, avoid thinking about, and cry over once it’s actually said. I never thought I would say this word and have it affect my life so much. I didn’t know that the thing that would make me feel at my lowest low and make me cry more than I thought was capable of a person was that one word. Goodbye.

Goodbye can mean a lot of things to different people. Having experience dating my husband both before and while he was in the Marines the meaning of that word has changed drastically for me. I’m not trying to sound biased, but normally when you say goodbye to a friend that you just had lunch with, you always imply that you will see them again that same week (naturally) or at least soon! Once Mike left for boot camp goodbye changed to a whole new meaning. Or even for deployment, the meaning changed. When we first met in high school, we said goodbye to each other and it translated to I’ll see you tomorrow love. When he left for boot camp, it translated to I’ll see you in thirteen weeks and I hope you don’t change. Boot camp gave us a stronger and better relationship and then when he was deployed the goodbye meant I’ll miss you more than ever, please come back to me as soon as you can. Unfortunately, when he was in Iraq he got extended by two months so I had to wait even longer than anticipated. The most painful goodbye I have ever had was when I said goodbye to my momma and my family when I left to move in with my husband. Don’t get me wrong, I was ecstatic that I was married and was going to start my life with my husband but I was dreading the day that I had to hug my momma one last time and I didn’t know when I was going to see her again. So this goodbye translated to I love you so much, and I want to see you again soon but I really don’t want to say goodbye, not yet. Before you know it, it’s time to say goodbye and you just can’t bring yourself to say that one word. I know for some people goodbye might be easier than others although I realize that saying goodbye to your husband before he leaves is hard on all of us.

Goodbye to me means that for right now, we’re not together. That we are separated for a certain amount of time while you are gone, I’m going to miss you, love you more than you know, and dream about the day I get to see you again. I can think of all the things we did when we were together and all the fun we had.

Despite all this, there is one thing that is good about saying goodbye. Which is the hello. Hello is the complete opposite (duh, right?) of the goodbye in every sense. Instead of sad, you are happy. Your tears are for joy instead of for sadness. And your heart practically jumps out of your body at the very sight of the person you had been waiting months (or years depending on who you are) to see. Once you see this person, all the time you spent crying, being alone, “staying busy”, and wishing that you could be with him or her was well worth the wait.

I’ll be the first one to admit that I hated deployment. I hate spending time alone. I’m way too social of a person to spend an extending amount of time by myself. However, everything was worth it when I was able to see his face again. Relationships build when you spend time apart. I don’t really consider these words “wise” but I do believe that the goodbye that you say is all worth it and more once it comes time to say hello."