Good-bye is never easy...

Remember when you were little, and it just wasn't that hard to say good-bye to the people you loved? It was a short simple cry, and then within a few hours, you'd forget about them, or the time spent with them.

Maybe it wasn't easy, maybe, it's just gotten harder.

Some of the hardest good-bye's are those in that happen because of death (post on this later this week.) Second would probably be when life happens, and friends go two different ways, and "friends" just isn't so easy anymore. Third is when life happens, and one of you moves away or goes to college.

Yea, college.

When I was in 6th grade, my sister was in 11th. When our youth group said good-bye to those seniors, I simply wasn't as effected. The next year, when my sister left, it was pretty sad. All my youth group years(all two of them up to that point), she'd been with me. 8th and 9th grade years, I just wasn't bothered when the seniors said there goodbyes.

Last year was the first year it was like "oh, wow...my friends are graduating and going to college in the fall...." And I actually cried when some of them left the youth group, and when others left town.

(Me, KB, H, K)

But this year. This year, has been by far the hardest. These three awesome people pictured with me, are the seniors I'll miss the most. I'm closest to them, and am ever so thankful, they'll all be local in the fall. The older we all get, the harder it is for the seniors to leave. Every time they do, a piece of our youth group melts. Of course our youth group is growing and changing, and making room for the rising youth, but its still so hard to watch as the seniors go from giant "big kids" to friends.

They'll still be around. We'll still keep in touch. And I'm pretty sure they'll still come to the same church. But no matter how hard you try to hold onto something, it will always change. And on the brink of the last few months with them, we're realizing, that it's all about to happen. Ready or not, here comes the future. It's a scary kind of thing to grasp.

The future is like this unknown, looming, dreadful cloud. And sometimes, you can't out-chase the storm. (not that the future is a storm, rather just the idea of something you don't wanna deal with.) I know I'm not too excited about my unknown, but I'm also not too excited about sayin' goodbye to these people who are the best to make memories with.

I love you guys!

~"Madster"