Letting Go

Letting go is often incredibly difficult, from letting go of some form of relationship to moving onto the next stage of your life: secondary school, college, uni, etc etc to moving on from a moment, day, a wonderful time to a slightly less exciting time. Letting go is sometimes essential. (Naturally, of course, the things I'm talking about relate to my life and may not to yours.)

Over the last year I've had to let go of many things: a friendship; an unresolved upset; school life. Right now, despite having finished a year at college and enjoying that year on the whole, I'm suddenly finding it really super difficult to let go of secondary school. Whenever I think back to my secondary school experience I'm overwhelmed by nostalgia, missing a bunch of friendships and people, the sense of togetherness and the lessons... Now in the process of letting go, when I'm craving the days of last year (well, way over a year now!), I remind myself: if you're missing those days, wishing you could go back, then you need to live these days, make these days awesome. For me, this is definitely true. I need to enjoy college. Otherwise in a year and a bit I won't have as much to look back on and think "hey, the last two years were fab" as I do about secondary school. This would be sad. So I need to let go and enjoy now.

You know that feeling you get after the end of an amazing holiday? You feel like you could cry because the thought of leaving behind the lovely place full of memories and going back to reality is so unbearably frightening. That's what, to me, letting go is. Even though the memories will still be with me when I get home, back to normality, it's no longer there. This can be terrifying. However sometimes it's needed. We can't be on holiday forever, eh? Even so, that thing you need to let go of may not be giving you joy or joy that's good for you and this has to be realised. Don't waste your life on something making you miserable or producing a façade of happiness.

Letting go isn't always something that happens after clicking your fingers and thinking "it's time to move on, renew" and in some cases, it shouldn't be a sudden thing, but a gradual, slightly bumpy and teary journey. I've watched people close to me have to get over some horrendously terrible things; things that people thirty years older wouldn't have to experience for years to come which naturally, made the process worse. Still, after years, things haven't been gotten over - so to speak - and they never really will, but things have got brighter. Letting go doesn't mean forgetting and even sometimes there isn't an end but this can be healthy. Something stopping the movement of moving on is thinking "but I want to stay in that time forever, the time with him, the time with her, the time with us"; sometimes you have to forget about "him, her, us".

The lyrics "only know you love her when you let her go" by Passenger, I feel should be mentioned here as I think it helps put across the point of this post. It is okay to let go and it's okay to find it hard, but most importantly, make the most of a certain thing: a friendship; a period of time; a day out. This way, when you're having to let go of that amazing memory, it'll be just as difficult but at least you'll have some amazing memories and you, personally don't have to regret anything. You want have to be left missing "the sun when it starts to snow". Letting go of a certain memory means making new ones. Letting go is difficult but it is possible and it can be freeing and it may even allow you to build bridges eventually.

Sunrises & Sunsets,

The Girl in the Moonlight.