Greeting and Goodbye

When you meet people in person or on call, how do you greet them? Do you even greet them? How do you say goodbye? Do you even say goodbye?

I might be sounding mad to be asking such a stupid question in the first place. But, asking because I have personally experienced it. And, today I stumbled on a youtube short of Will Smith.

In that short clipping. Will Smith narrates a story about how his father was suffering from some chronic illness. And, doctors had told him that his father had only 3 months more to live. In those 3 months, they talked about everything. His dad lived for another 3 months. For Will, each day with his father was a gift. Whenever he used to meet him. He used to ensure that the hello is enthusiastic. Whenever he left home he ensured that his goodbye is a proper thorough goodbye.

The lesson is you never really know which goodbye turns out to be the last goodbye. Don't take it as advice. I am no one to advice anything to anyone.

This is penned down as a note for self. The truth is the goodbye I in reality didn't do well. Turned out to be the last goodbye.

Night of December 17, 2021, it was. I was writing code and pushing code to raise the merge request. When it was time to shake hands and bid goodbye. We shook hands but my head was still down. Work.

Life doesn't give a second chance. You don't even know if you'll meet the same person next time or not. Laptops, mobile phones, notifications.. and whatnot. All the things can wait.

Events are sudden. In my head, he would have returned like all other times. In reality, didn't. And, that poor goodbye turned out to be the last goodbye. It still haunts.

Lesson learned.