Saying goodbye...

There are so many days that I feel like we are still so new to the Foreign Service, still trying to figure everything out. I feel like we have Guatemala down, well for the most part down, but as for the FS...we are so green behind the ears.

This week started the first wave of goodbye parties of people who are in our fold of life here. Sure people have been leaving since we got here, but this week marks the first of our friends, our social circle....and it is only just beginning. We will be one of the last from our little network to leave, which means we will have to weather each person's goodbye, with another pang to the heart. I know more people will come, we still have quite a bit of time here to forge new, fun friendships....but it is hard to know that this is the start of the goodbyes for so many years to come. Everyone says it gets easier, you get used to it, you have to get used it, this is just part of the FS life....but I am pretty sure it will never get easier for me. I cry when there is a cute dog on a commercial. I am a total softy.

Needless to say I have been thinking a lot about this, but don't want to be a total sad sack. So I have decided to remind myself that I am so lucky to be able to get the chance to keep making new friendships, am so lucky to travel the world, have new adventures with new people....and I hold out hope that our paths will cross again. (But with that said, I am still bracing myself for when our best best best friends here leave in a month....ugh.)