HEALING | CLOSURE

The Unsaid Goodbye

For anyone still holding words they never got to say.

Iqra Arshad

4 min read

2 days ago

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Autumn leaves scattered and falling against a glass ceiling, with tall trees visible beyond the glass. — Photo by Polina Khaiko on Unsplash

Goodbyes, right?

Why are we so bad at them?

I think most of us hate goodbyes. Not because we do not understand them, but because we feel them too deeply. We hold ourselves back from that moment, knowing exactly what it will ask of us.

Saying goodbye is hard because people don’t just pass through our lives empty-handed. They take pieces of us with them. And they leave pieces behind. With every person we grow close to, we become a slightly different version of ourselves, sharing jokes only they understand, silences that feel safe, habits that only exist because they existed.

Those small, specific things are what make goodbyes so heavy.

I used to wonder why people do this. Why they arrive with warmth, with promises, with feelings that feel real, and then one day they leave.

Sometimes with a few words, sometimes with none at all. And the person left behind is left holding all the unspoken words, all the things they never got to say. That unresolved goodbye stays with you.