By Saying Goodbye

By saying goodbye,

She was going to cry, but I had to stay strong.

Just two years ago, I was her,

A sophomore, saying farewell to the senior she adored.

For me it was the middle of the night,

After the flight, back from a New York trip.

I looked up to my senior and wondered,

What will I do without you?

She was incomparable.

Simply the best.

By saying goodbye meant we’d lose this.

When it felt like the end,

Others stepped up to the top

Until two years and it was my turn.

I became a senior and made many friends,

I took a sophomore under my wing.

Absentmindedly, I lived.

Never truly understanding the positive impact I had on her.

For her, it was the end of the week,

She came to speak, for she knew it was her last time with me.

I looked down in her big underclassman eyes, she spoke,

What will I do without you?

She told me,

I was incomparable.

To her, I was simply the best.

And that she’d miss me dearly, because

By saying goodbye means I’d be gone.

For that moment I saw myself standing before me,

A young girl, not ready to move above.

Still with two years to discover,

Self-empower, and inspire the newbies to come.

If there was one thing that has changed,

It’d be my perspective on upperclassmen:

Always glorified,

But secretly horrified of what the future brings.

And you’ll always feel like the one looking up,

Even when you are at the top.

‘Cause that’s how it seems,

When you’re saying goodbye to the person you strive to be.