Parker Verhoeff
English 9
Mr. Salsich

5.4.09

Adios! :
An Essay on the Art of Saying Goodbye

Everyone will need to depart from something. Emily Dickinson has done this three times now. Naomi Shihab Nye tells me to not be afraid to say "adios." Both of their works of literature relate to my life, especially now when I am coming to a "close" myself.

This year is my last year at Pine Point School, which I've attended since fifth grade. I am parting from the place I've gone to every weekday at 8:00 for 9 months out of the year. I am parting from my friends that I've seen every weekday for 9 months out of the year. It is going to be tough, but I just have to look forward to the next three years at The Williams School. I already have friends that go there, and some of my friends from Pine Point are coming with me as well, but I know I'll still have to make new friends. I'll still have to transition and start a new. Along with starting a new, I'm not going to forget my past, or anything that has impacted me as great as my middle school years-Periodic Sentence. My past at Pine Point has shaped me into who I am today and I can't express how much gratitude I have for the teachers who have done this. As I look back on my Pine Point career, it seems so evanescent-FAST. I can remember my first day, nervousness and anxiousness overwhelming me, like it was yesterday. But in reality, my experience at Pine Point has a longevity-FAST to last a lifetime, and it's hard for anybody to part from a place that means this much to you.

Emily Dickinson discusses parting in her untitled poem, and explains, "[it's] all we know." She says, "My life closed twice before its close," meaning that before her death, two devastating occurrences impacted her greatly-Loose Sentence. Her life "closed" and opened again to a new chapter to her life twice. For example, I am leaving my school, and it's going to feel like a "close" for me, but I still know it's going to lead to a new and more exciting part of my life. She goes on to wonder if, "immortality [is going to] unveil/ a third event to [her]." This means she doesn't know if and when she is going to die. Those two other events seemed to impact her as much as death would, and she truly has no idea how she can cope with a "third event.” But if she dies, "parting is all we know of heaven, / and all we need of hell." This puzzling statement means that all we know of being happy, or going to "heaven," is that we part from the bad things. We tend to focus on our departure rather than the time we had living. Ms. Dickinson has an interesting take on this bittersweet subject of parting, and how we need departure in our lives if we want to get to our true "Heaven."

Along side with Ms. Dickinson, Naomi Shihab Nye talks of parting in her poem, "Adios." She begins the poem by, not just talking about the word "adios" itself, but what the subject of departure means to her. "It is a good word, rolling off the tongue/ no matter what language you were born with," she writes, explaining how adios is a word that everyone uses no matter where you come from. She makes it seem like it's only a word at first, but then she tells us to "marry" the act of parting "more than any golden ring." "Wear it on your finger," she says, "touching everything easily,/ letting everything, easily, go;" getting to know everything, but being able to part with everything easier than you got to know them. You can even "strap it to your back like wings" when you don't know how you can say goodbye. "The stream of air behind a jet" will guide you in the right direction. Finally, she says, "if you are known for anything, / let it be the way you rise out of sight/ when your work is finished." This bold statement says to me, if you want to be remembered for anything, be remembered for the way you overcome the struggles. Be remembered for the way you say goodbye, rather than the way you say hello. I will surely take what Ms. Nye has intelligently said, and apply it to my graduation at Pine Point. "The word explains itself;" a universal word for departing- "adios" is not to be said to anything, save it for the "lessons following lessons, / like silence following sound."

There two ways you can go about saying goodbye. You can take departing in your stride, or it can be a very difficult thing to do. This being said, both Emily Dickinson, and Naomi Shihab Nye have posed some interesting ways for me to deal with my graduation from Pine Point School. Hopefully, I will think of both of these exquisite writers when I feel the emotional baggage that I know will overwhelm me.

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Self-Assessment

5.11.09- A Five paragraph Essay on Saying Goodbye

Things I've been working on: I have been trying to eliminate all unnecessary words. Also, unnecessary commas have been a reoccurring issue.

Things I like in this essay: I believe all my special tools are apt. I think that my use of quotes made my writing flow easier, and was an effective way to get my point across.

Some weak points: I might be vague in some parts. There also might be some comma-splices, or places where I needed a comma and did not put one.

Grade: B+