As the school year is ending, yearbooks start getting signed. Some have long, meaningful paragraphs. Others simply say, “Have a great summer!” which quickly gets shortened to, “HAGS!” Some goodbyes are infinitely more tender than others, with everything from tears to small glances from across a crowd.

The interesting thing is that the amount of emotion in a goodbye isn’t always equal to how close two people are. The saddest goodbyes come from the graduating seniors, because they are the ones who you might never see again.

In the modern world, it isn’t really true that you will never talk to someone again. Phone calls, texting, Facebook messages, email, and countless other things make it outrageously easy to stay in touch. It isn’t really a goodbye if you use technology to talk to your friends every day of the summer. It is just a “see you later.” As in, the next day kind of later.

So why is it still so hard to say goodbye? It seems that it is really hardest to say goodbye to the seniors because you are not sure if they are going to survive out there in the real world. Becoming an adult is like a rocket blasting off: it’s exciting and momentous and it’s a thing that everyone looks forward to. But it is also something to worry about, because space gets awful lonely sometimes. Yes, you’ve got your heat shields, safety measures are in place, but if you blow up you will still crumble into a scorching pile of twisted metal. Graduating is scary for everyone, but the onlookers are usually the ones having flashbacks to all of the rockets that have crashed.

We don’t even really have to say goodbye, just see you later, but watching people leave is still difficult. My older sister and best friend Claire is graduating high school tomorrow. I already miss her. Hello, summer. Goodbye, friends.

In the words of Winnie the Pooh, “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”

Chloe Kincaid is a student of Soldotna High School.