Probably a lot of time in the last week before you jet off on your RTW trip is saying goodbye…or in my case ‘see you later’.

Goodbye is not a word that features heavily in my vocabulary. In fact, I don’t like that word. Goodbye to me means you won’t see that person again so hence I often say ‘see you later…alligator.’ I want to see you again, and I know I will see you again so why say goodbye?

After a fantastic weekend of festivities with my amazing mates that involved a huge party and a fantastic bloody night out, there were a lot of ‘see you later‘ to them. In that mindset of see you later, I wasn’t really able to weep bucket of tears, grabbing hold of my friends, choking back sobs and in the words of Michael Jackson ‘this is it! Goodbye!‘ not really. I simply gave them a hug, a winning and handsome smile and shrugged my shoulders and said ‘see you later.’ because I will see them later after my 8 month 2012 travels. Go figure. I’ll come back after, say hello, chat about my travels probably of 5 mins and go back to discussing who’s who in Hollyoaks like I’ve never been away at all!

Call me cold hearted, but it’s just the way I function. I move around a lot and see people so much that maybe I don’t quite have that emotional attachment people have with each other for a lifetime. Don’t get me wrong, I love my mates. But then again, I’ll see them later 🙂 i have many things to look forward to for when I came back and the biggest one is seeing Hannah and her brand new baby! I’ll be in Australia when the bairn is born so it’ll be a good few months before I do finally get to see mother and baby perhaps called Ed or Rex (hint hint Hannah!)

The hardest ‘see you later‘ has to be my parents. I went to stay at the family home for a week after my party and I truly enjoyed every minute of it with them. As the date came closer for my departure, I’m sure each of us were keenly aware that we had to say ‘see you later.’ so we busied ourselves and busied some more.

On the day, mum busied herself with a cooking a breakfast, dad doing some work. Still not a word passed between lips about leaving. Then we had to go to the train station. I decided to go to the airport on my own…it’s too hard on everyone on the journey if we went together. As the train pulled in, I kissed my mum and hugged her tightly. Telling her to behave herself I went to dad and gave one of those MANLY handshakes and again told him to behave himself. Also, telling them both a ‘see you later.’ but it was hard coming out of my mouth.

As I stood waiting on the train, waiting for it to go, I stared at my parents and with a crushing amount of guilt pressed on my heart, I didn’t want to leave them. Would they be ok? Do they know how to get in touch with me? I’m extremely thankful of the Internet that would enable me to check up on my parents on a regular basis especially over Skype.

As the train started to move, I furiously waved at them with a slipping grinning face. As expected, mum started crying as she waved back at me, which started me off and dad waved as well looking like he was about to burst.

As their figures slowly disappeared out of sight, I slowly curled myself up with my backpack and allowed myself a few tears knowing the love we all felt for each other.

Perhaps there are emotional ‘see you laters.’