supposed<\/em>\nto \u2013 when we were more mentally prepared, when we would have bid our formal\nfarewells or even scheduled holiday meetups. Sure, in an age of instant\ncommunication, we can all still keep in contact via social media, but in our\nheart of hearts, we know that things can never be the same again. <\/p>\n\n\n\nOur goodbyes will be quick, abrupt, an e-gathering at best,\nsymbolic of the sudden end to our time here. In times like these, it might be\ntempting to just go with the motions of farewell without accepting the reality\nof what\u2019s going on, or even decide not to say goodbye, keeping the social\nstatus quo in the hopes that every relationship stays just as it is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it won\u2019t, because things will never be the same again. Even without coronavirus, we know full well that the structure which bound us as a community will begin to gradually erode, just as it did in our previous schools. We would always share an identity of having been part of the same home, but that would be a part of our common past, and not a shared future. We will most certainly keep in touch with the best of the friends we made, but even then, the late-night talks, the shared morning rush, the regular meals \u2013 even these would be no more. And for the foreseeable future, it remains uncertain when we will even get to see each other again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thus, more than ever in these uncertain times, we must therefore\nhave the courage to say goodbye to life as we know it today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We must have the courage to say goodbye to the best friends\nwe have made here, promising that we will meet as soon as possible, even if we\nwould no longer share the same home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We must have the courage to say goodbye to the\nacquaintances we have come to know, whether we met them in or out of the\nclassroom, promising to stay in touch, even if it\u2019s just via social media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And for the acquaintances whom we still hope to befriend,\nwe must especially have the courage to say goodbye \u2013 for the very act of doing\nso signifies that we valued their presence, enough that we don\u2019t wish for\nthings to completely end. In an age of acquaintances where far too many\nfriendships end before they even began, we must then have the courage to tell\nthem that we still want to know them better, and hope that they would like to\ndo so too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And once we do so, once we have the courage to say goodbye,\nwe will be liberated from the dread of the present, and free to imagine the\npossibilities of the future. We will gain the closure we thought we missed out\non, whilst opening new opportunities for future interaction. We will realise\nthe strength of the relationships at stake, and resolve at best as we can to\nkeep them as they are, against whatever odds we may face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only when we have the courage to say goodbye, will we have\nthe courage to ensure that it\u2019s not really<\/em> goodbye, the will to bend our\npaths towards a faint chance of crossing in the months to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\nGoodbye doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s the end \u2013 and if we have the\ncourage to say it, we can have hope that it will not be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I eventually wrote for my yearbook quote, \u201csomeday, we will meet again\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
–<\/p>\n\n\n\n
About the author <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Chia Wee is a second-year student from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and a member of Polity. He likes joining in the national conversation through writing commentaries, which he contributes to The Straits Times and CNA. He hopes to publish a book one day, documenting his journey as a young writer unpacking the uncertainties of a disrupted future, whilst discussing the writing skills needed for readers to craft their own adventures. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As the journeys of some Tembusians reach their conclusions, hastened by a coronavirus outbreak, Ng Chia Wee reflects on what it truly means to have the courage to say goodbye.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":5894,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","publication_type-reflection","theme-psychology","scope-tembusu","flavour-contemplative","flavour-sombre"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tembusu3.nus.edu.sg\/treehouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tembusu3.nus.edu.sg\/treehouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tembusu3.nus.edu.sg\/treehouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tembusu3.nus.edu.sg\/treehouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tembusu3.nus.edu.sg\/treehouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5890"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/tembusu3.nus.edu.sg\/treehouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5901,"href":"https:\/\/tembusu3.nus.edu.sg\/treehouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5890\/revisions\/5901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tembusu3.nus.edu.sg\/treehouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tembusu3.nus.edu.sg\/treehouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tembusu3.nus.edu.sg\/treehouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tembusu3.nus.edu.sg\/treehouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}