Leaving

I am sitting in the Quito airport, waiting for my flight to Houston. Another adventure is over. A little sad to leave, a little happy to go home. At times i am not even sure about my state of mind. I was telling someone that, although traveling is wonderful, it is also hard at times. Whether it is for a short period or for longer (read: moving to another country for about 5 years or more), it's always exciting, new, enriching, you meet new people, get comfortable around them, learn to know them better, get attached to some of them, and then unevitably something has to change. You leave, they leave, you move, they move...and you wonder "why going through this sadness of parting, leaving and saying goodbye. Is it all really worth it?" And then at times, people leave for good, they are no more, and you don't know how to handle that. You also don't know how to react to it when it happens to someone close. I don't know how to handle someone's sadness. What to say, what to do. It seems that nothing i can say will make a difference. It hurts to know someone is hurt, but since it nearly does not hurt as much to me as to the one that is hurting, I just keep quiet and move along...I think that ultimately we deal with things alone...or so we try. I am not sure i have mastered that yet...but i am trying.

In short: I hate leaving, or saying goodbye, or for that matter "moving on"...and it seems it is what i am doing a lot lately.