Three hours. Three hours is all I have left. Three hours is all I have left to say goodbye to one of the most important people in my life. She has been living in the room next to me for the past 14 years, which is making goodbye seem close to impossible. While watching her put useless junk into big brown cardboard boxes, she told me of her excitement to finally get out of the house and to be independent. I wanted her to change her mind, for her to stay, but instead of stating my true feelings I congratulated her on her acceptance.
I never understood why it was such a big deal whenever a sibling goes off to college, but now experiencing it first-hand, I see how it turns a life upside down. My best friend was leaving me, going to accomplish bigger and better things. While wiping the one lonely tear falling down my cheek, I started taping up the packed boxes for her departure. As I rip each piece of tape, I get sadder and sadder. Emotions of empathy and anger rushed through my head as I think of ways to say goodbye. I come to the conclusion that I’m not going to say goodbye. It’s not happening. I look over to my parents hunched over at the kitchen table, just sitting there, no emotion on there face. Staring into their gloomy eyes I saw their pain that their little butterfly was all grown up. Flapping her wings into the big world, she was nothing but prepared for what was in store for her.
Two siblings of mine have already made their flight into the bigger world, but neither of them leaving felt like this. It’s not that I didn’t love them; we just weren’t close. But with her leaving, close was the farthest thing I was feeling with anyone right now. My sister looked blankly and unconcerned into my big hazel eyes and got a sense of the sadness I was feeling. Her mood switched from excitement to worry as she tried to comfort me.
“I will be back before you know it!” she said.
“I’m bringing mom my laundry every weekend.”
She giggled at her own joke of making our mom her own personal clothing slave, but I didn’t find it very amusing. As much as I wanted her words to make me feel like everything was going to be alright, they couldn’t. She patted me on the back and started bringing the finished boxes out to the car. I tape up the last of her many boxes and just sit there and wonder what my life will be like once she leaves. Visions of burning buildings and world destruction crash into my head. I let out a small wince and wonder if that could really happen. The thoughts shake out of my head as soon as I lift one of the heavy boxes into my arms and start to bring it to the car.
The fifteen minutes it took to pack the car felt like forever. Each box was a piece of my sister that was leaving. Each box was a memory I wouldn’t see anymore. The whole family was in distraught, but there was nothing any of us could do about it. It was the end of the summer, temperatures reaching their high, and school was about to start. She had to leave whether we all wanted her to or not.
For her goodbye, I made her a box of all the inside jokes and good times we have had together. Even though one box couldn’t sum up the love I felt for my best friend and sister, it was the best I could do. Pictures of us on the beach and letters we wrote to each other when we were angry filled the box to the rim. I told her not to open it until she got in the car and started on the road, she most gratefully listened to me. She started walking up to each one of us one by one for the goodbye. She came up to me, eyes big, filled with little tears, she said a heartfelt goodbye. I was not going to say goodbye back. Goodbye is something you say to someone you’re never going to see again. My sister and I will see each other soon. I knew it.
“See you later” pours out of my mouth as I hold back the tears, lip quivering. She made her way to my parents and the family dog, each was just as hard.
One last hug to me and my parents, and she climbed in the front seat of her yellow Beatle and took off. Down the black cemented road, her car blew dirt in the air as it picked up speed. Still waving goodbye, the car went out of sight. She was gone.