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By LIZZIE BOWEN | Staff Writer

After 11 full months of working at the Shelby County Reporter, I will be onto my next journey. I have interviewed many people throughout my time at the Shelby County Reporter who have experienced a variety of changes and goodbyes, some heartbreaking and some expected and planned. I interviewed a man who had a complete career change and started a restaurant of his dreams.

I am onto the Disney College Program, a dream that I have harbored for quite some time. This entire year for me has been about transition, following my dreams and saying goodbye.

I have had so memories during my time at the reporter and covered so many things. I have attended a One Republic concert for free in my first few weeks here, met the Birmingham Bulls and interviewed Taylor Hicks.

I have always kind of struggled when saying goodbye and parting ways with others, but some goodbyes are planned and others are not.

In this same newspaper, my uncle’s obituary has run, one of the hardest goodbyes I have ever said in my life. But I have learned goodbyes are sometimes necessary. It is a part of life as we know it. As I prepare for a life without my uncle, I am also preparing for a new job.

My uncle would blush if he even knew I was using my last opinion article with the Shelby County Reporter to discuss my love for him and the grief I am experiencing amongst saying goodbye to him. He was a big fan of the paper, and more importantly, a very big fan of me. He loved me and supported all I did, and I know if he was here with me today, he would be ecstatic to see this next chapter I am embarking on.

I am amongst the biggest season of change I have ever been in. I didn’t know my life would be like this or I would be experiencing so much change, and if you told me that this is the type of change I would be experiencing a year ago, I would have never believed you.

But there can be pride in goodbyes. I am proud of myself for going for it and jumping into a new adventure relatively blindly.

As I walk into this next stage of my life, I say goodbye. And goodbyes are hard. As I walk into the unknown I know there will be nights in my dorm room where I most likely cry, missing my parents or my uncle or maybe even how my life used to look, but through this all, I have faith.

I have faith that goodbyes do not always have to be gut wrenching. I have faith that I am strong enough to withstand every goodbye and above all else, I know I am strong.

To everyone and anyone who is experiencing a goodbye and particularly a goodbye that they did not see coming, know that I am with you. You are not alone. Goodbyes have never been easy, but amidst goodbyes or even grief, we are strong. And even through the rainy days of grief and goodbyes, sunshine will come in the morning.