Five Ways to Say Goodbye Without Actually Saying It.
3 min readJun 4, 2024
- With a teddy bear, because you are not going to hug them anymore, so they might as well hug something that can make them remember your scent while inhaling in their sleep, something they can grab and hold tightly at night to confirm the person that popped out on their midnight thoughts was not just a dream.
- With a hug, the simplest goodbye is still the one that carries the most meaning; it breaks language barriers and lets you express something that words will never do. In the middle of that hug, when the memories start to overflow and you feel you can easily fall, you will be tempted to hold the person tighter, do it, and bury your fingers on their back as if you could connect your memories to their soul and show them your emotions “look, this is how I feel” the words can not come out so you express them by hugging longer.
- “See you soon”, the cowards alternative, because people (including me) are too scared to accept the idea that maybe they won’t see each other again, so using those words makes the moment lighter, like. It puts a soft filter on a tragedy, like a movie that has promised a sequel without yet asking for a budget.
- With a letter, one paper that probably will not have all the words that you want to express or all the feelings you want to translate, your hand will get tired way before writing all the mixed emotions on a blank page. After some sentences, you will eventually realize this method does not allow all the emotions to be shared because some stuff that lives deep in your heart does not have words to be described. Throw the pencil and fold the paper aggressively when you give up on it, but do not forget to put your name and date.
- With a photo, take it fast and from an angle you can remember every corner of the room or each pore of a person’s face, all of this effort because you do not trust your memory well enough to retain all those little details that make that person or place so special. Look at the picture every day, every morning, threatened by the fear that one day you won’t look at it with the same nostalgia.
- Maybe don’t say it at all — no teddy bear, no hug, no “see you soon,” no picture — just put your luggage on the truck and drive to the airport, your eyes red and full of veins focused on the highway, while your head imagines the shocked face of that person when they notice you are not there anymore. Drive faster as if you were running out of time because doing any alternative to a goodbye means it’s over, and even though your life already dragged you out of those happy moments and forced you to move on, you have tricked your mind into thinking this is not the end because a dot in the sentences has not been written. Reaccomodate the tip of your feet on the clutch and drive faster before you give enough time for your head to find out that not saying goodbye is the sixth and worst way to say it.
