Its better that we break

And so we come to the end. It is all too often that goodbyes are met with the emptiness of silence, and it is no different this time.

Four months of self discovery, friendship, romance, and Vietnam have come to an end. In the coming days I will try to find the words for a proper goodbye, but I doubt my efforts will suffice. Rarely do we go on such an adventure as studying abroad in Vietnam, an exercise in the permanence of change, however ironic that statement may seem.

We have shared this sojourn with many people, between ourselves and alone. Soon we will leave the comfort of Vietnam's obscurity and the familiarity of our group. It is this separation which will allow us to measure ourselves, redefined, from the people we were.

So, maybe it is better that we break apart. This is our chance to see the growth. To see what the dynamo of Vietnam has turned us into, throwing us into sharp relief against the dark backdrop of our static homes and our standstill friends. In return, we will leave behind our lives here and the beauty of Vietnam. It will cost us newly found families and friendships. But in the end, we will be that much better for it.

Sometimes life can't be all fairy tales and flowers. There will not always be a prince charming, nor there a dragon for him to slay. The truth is, life is somewhere in between. Romeo can't always have his Juliet, but we can still hope.