I don't say goodbye

Goodbye sounds final. Goodbye sounds like I'm not coming back. So I've decided to save 'goodbye' for a time when the question of my return is legitimate. On Tuesday I went to Southern to visit with friends before my three week absence. I noticed that as the day went on, the more times I said goodbye. It got worse as more and more people gave me sad, and sometimes tearful, hugs with the forever-scary 'goodbye' looming around us. As I sit in the D.C. airport, awaiting my flight to Dakar, I have decided that I am taking back all of those 'goodbyes' and replacing them with: I love you, and I'll see you very soon.