to be stronger...

People come and go in our lives. No matter how many times you experience your hellos and goodbyes, I can never get used to it.

I had to say good-bye to three good people today.

My school friend went back to Japan to go to a Japanese University. He was always a very hard-working guy. He would ask me to help him whenever he was struggling with his school work, and we used to always encourage each other to keep our faces up to survive school. When you are living abroad from your home country alone from an early age, you tend to build a strong bond with the people who are in the same situation. All my school friends are connected with something very strong, since we all have experienced the fear of living in a different country, homesickness, and the struggles of living alone, together. I could not have continued to live here without them. However, at the same time, this means that our hellos and good-byes are always side by side. Not a lot of people decide to stay after school, and even if they do, its not for a long time. Being in this kind of situation, I should be always ready to say good-byes but it is still very hard.

Another good-bye was with my apartment managers. I have been living in this apartment since 18 when I literally didn't know anything about Vancouver. I didn't know how to make a stop request on buses. I didn't know where to go for groceries. I didn't know where anything was. People who have helped me to start my life in Vancouver were them. For 6 years, I have treated them and depended on them as my second parents and they treated me like their child. When I was a teenager, I used to always lock my self out of my room, and I don't know how many times they had to let me in in the middle of the night. But they never complained once, they would always come help me at any time, rolling their eyes but smiling.

Hellos and good-byes are in a set. Where there is a hello, there is always a good-bye, which is something we cannot control in our lives. What is important is in between. What you experience, feel, and learn in between hellos and good-byes are the things that makes our lives precious.

I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to people who I had to say good-bye today, thank you for being in my life.

I believe that I am one more step closer to be a stronger person.


With all my love, Kana