It is a non-local's part of life isn't it, to say goodbye to fellow non-local friends by the time they have to leave and you're the one to stay behind.
Which is why I got to hate Narita airport in Tokyo with the goodbyes.
But I must admit, being the person who leaves, the feeling might not be as sad, which is more of a selfish reason... not being the one to feel being left behind...not proud of it though
The saddest goodbye I had to do was when I was in my first year of univ. and heard a good friend decided to leave Japan as he thought our scholarship programme that includes the study in the univ. for 4 years is not really what he wanted or what would be good for him in the future.
I guess we all held him dear and by the time he went inside the gate, we all had to sit down for a while to sob, even the guys.
Most of us have known each other for about 2 years then, I suppose either since we consider him a great guy whom we would miss to be around and/or that we feel sad more in general that a fellow friend of the same programme we were in decided to give it up, which I suppose makes the programme we chose to be in sounds like a bad one in a sense as well...
Back to the goodbye as part of a non-local's life, there are non-locals who then have decided to live in the country s/he is currently living in for a long time or maybe even forever, would drift away from the non-local community and socialise more with the locals, not to have to go thru the goodbye scenes and I suppose thinking that it's not really worth the investment of his/her time, heart and effort, which is sad but actually holds some truth in it ay?
Just saw Lost In Translation on HBO channel. The goodbye scene there was nice I reckon.
Even if you would like to keep it light, unless the relationship between the two is not that deep, it is indeed nice to have a meaningful goodbye, even if it's going to sadden both or either party...
)
