The Struggles of Saying Goodbye at Friendly's

The Struggles of Saying Goodbye

Saying goodbye is never really easy, well okay, maybe sometimes it's not all that hard to just say "PEACE OUT SUCKA" and never see a person again, but there are some people where saying goodbye is almost impossible, but a necessity. I have the hardest time with my boyfriend, Aaron.

Aaron and I have been together now, as of Jan 20th, five years. Of course there is a lot of history there and I am not going to go through our entire story right here, right now. Currently we go to separate colleges. I am in Potsdam, NY, and he is in Syracuse, NY, which is roughly 3-4 hours apart from each other. I have two jobs at school where it is a necessity to work weekends with one, and Aaron is a bunk-in at a firehouse and is on call many days so visits are rare, but the entire highlight of my school year. Even worse is the fact that this semester's breaks do not match up for either of us.

Knowing these things already had me on edge the entire winter break. I tend to fret and worry about things outside of my control. Of course I just continued to give myself anxiety throughout the entire break instead of enjoying the present. Granted we had an awesome winter break together. We got to visit Aaron's sister and adorable niece in Virginia where we got a quick break from the snowy north country, we spent Christmas Eve, Christmas, and New Years with each other and our families, had a free getaway in one of the largest rooms available at the Great Escape Lodge and Water Park, went to see Anchorman 2 (which sucked), and spent several other days together watching Netflix and pigging out on all kinds of foods.

Finally the day came where I had to leave. I said goodbye to my parents, dog, and cried when I hugged my sister, who literally is one of my best friends. I thought maybe I had gotten my tears out then and there, but of course I was wrong. 

Aaron, then, told me to follow him. I figured he would lead me to Dunkin' Donuts where we would get our usual caramel vanilla swirl iced coffee with cream and sugar alongside a boston cream donut. I was wrong. He led me to Friendly's for a nice little goodbye breakfast.

I got hot chocolate, with whipped cream of course, a waffle with strawberries( and more whipped cream) and sausage. Aaron, being Aaron, got a breakfast with everything (coffee, pancakes, eggs, home fries, sausage...). Typically it is customary for me to nibble away at his home fries... but my ketchup was banished to being placed on the side since Aaron will only eat them plain. We were just having small talk when of course I just burst into tears before breakfast was even brought to the table.

We could both feel the entire restaurant staring at our table. It was clear they felt that he had broken up with me over breakfast or said something to upset me (granted breakup pancakes do seem like a decent peace offering). We even noticed an increase in the waitress checking in ("Is everything okay...?), probably intent on stopping any domestic dispute that may have happened. It was just awkward and I felt like people were staring at us nonstop. Leave it to me to cause a scene.

We ate our breakfast and left over a 20% tip. Hopefully the waitress at that point had dismissed the idea of Aaron being an abusive partner. At least I left with a smile on my face (mostly because I was thinking of how ridiculous the whole situation was).

Finally we hugged and said our first goodbyes outside of our cars.

Then our second goodbyes as I started crying and weaseled my way into his passenger seat.

Then our third goodbyes through the windows with tears coming from both parties.

Then our fourth goodbyes as we both pulled out of the parking lot and turned our separate ways at the the stop light (me left and him right).

Who ever said that each year the distance would get easier lied. Each year, each semester, each month, each week, each day... I miss him more and more and the distance just suffocates me. I can't wait until we both have graduated school and can finally be together after ( what will be) over six years later. I can't wait to prove to all of the people wrong that said we would never last through college. They also said we wouldn't make it through high school either. When you love someone, distance doesn't stop you, although I won't sugarcoat it... distance sucks, big time. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, but when you've found that special person, love becomes about sacrifice, and crying at Friendly's.