Saturday, August 30, 2008

Happy to say Good-Bye



This evening my husband and I were invited to a picnic that was a surprise going away party for our young friend who has been a much loved member of our community theatre family. His name is David and he has been actively involved both on and off stage with Hamilton-Gibson Productions for about 2 1/2 years. He is completing his last semester of college (a music major) and will be student teaching beginning next week. Although we expect to see him for visits, our regular exposure to this extraordinary young man will be much less.

After a delicious picnic meal, our host asked if anyone had anything to say in tribute of our young friend. One by one, we each spoke sharing our gratitude for his help on various projects, compliments for his superb acting and musical talents, his genuine desire to do whatever was asked of him, his humility in accepting a compliment, his spontaneous joyful attitude, his natural ability to work with kids, his optimism about everything, and also how much we would miss him.

It's funny how sometimes in our human experience, when there is someone we truly love to be around, we sometimes want to keep them close and not let them go away. As I spoke my acknowledgment, I truly did not want to hold onto David. Instead, I am happy to say good-bye, since farewell in this case means he is moving on with his life. He has so much to share with his future students and so many others that will have the pleasure to get to know him as we have, I want to send him off with love and joyful anticipation for many more adventures.

So rather than feel sorry for us that we are losing David, I am happy for all those that have yet to have the pleasure to know him.

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