'Tis better to have loved and lost, then never to have loved at all ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

How do you move on from the people that walked beside you as you learned a new language and braved a new world?  How do you say goodbye to the people you’ve shared the most important year of your life with?

I think you never say goodbye at all.

This weekend was the last Rotary Exchange Student reunion of my exchange year – an unmistakable sign that my adventure truly is winding down.  We kayaked and rock-climbed and swam fully-clothed in the lake because we didn’t have our bathing suits on.  We signed flags and notebooks and ate bread and slept shoulder to shoulder in sleeping bags on the hostel’s corridor floor, because it kept us closer for longer.  But as all things ultimately do, the weekend came to an end, and we have parted ways.  Leaving us all with that awful ache of loss.

But the pain we feel upon leaving those we care about is the acknowledgement of our love for them.  When the time comes that we may no longer take the relationship we have with one another for granted, it hurts.  But I feel they never really leave us.  People may go separate ways, but the love between them remains.  It is in this way that life teaches us to be strong, to be brave enough to give away our hearts, and to love fiercely and freely.  Even when it hurts.  With this demonstration of courage, we come to obtain a bond that may weather any storm and overcome every obstacle; that transcends all distance and time.  In this way, we never need to say goodbye.

To the Exchange Students of District 1650: over this past year we have become a team, with experiences and bonds that can never be replicated nor matched.  It has been a pure privilege to share this defining slice of my life with you, and I wish you all the best for your futures.  Finally, I hope you will always remember that my door is open to you forever:  both at my home in Canada, and in my heart.