goodbye to love

in my first week leaving the u.s., i entered a cafe in granada, spain and saw a young couple speaking english holding hands that seemed to be only a few years older than me.  i was new in the city and figured I had nothing to lose by saying hi.

i learned that the man was australian and the woman was portugese.  they told me they had each been traveling for the past month around europe and met eachother a few weeks before in lyon, before deciding to travel together to spain. the man said he was flying back to australia tomorrow so they were enjoying their last day together.

without missing a beat, i blurted out,

“aren’t you sad?  knowing that you may never see eachother again?”

they both looked at eachother and laughed

“we’re lucky that we even met at all, so we're just grateful to be here and enjoy the moments we have left."

at the time I remember thinking how difficult it must be to build such strong connections and then say goodbye.  

but 2 years later I realize that no goodbye is really goodbye.  the people we love stay with us.  sometimes over text, sometimes through photos, and sometimes only in our memories.  these people remain a part of us as we carry them with us in the way we think,  the way we speak, and the way we act.