Saying goodbye is one of the hardest things in sports.  We’ve all seen it.  Whether there are 18 boxes of Kleenex on the podium next to a 38-year-old gunslinger who isn’t really being that sincere and will return within two years with his team’s mortal enemy, or it’s just in the form of a text message to a trusted sportswriter, everyone says goodbye. 

Some people say goodbye before they’re ready, and some say goodbye far too late.  Some say goodbye just to come back later.  Goodbye becomes the common denominator of sports when all is said and done.

But this goodbye is different.  This goodbye is permanent.  I won’t be acting as Brett Favre on “The Patriot,” coming back in a year and writing for “Cry of the Hawk” or for “The Hall.” I’m done.  Looking back through all of the columns and stories I’ve written, I feel content.  There isn’t much more to ask out of life than that.  There’s no need to hang on to the past.  There’s no interception thrown in overtime to cost my team a shot at the Super Bowl (twice, no less) that I need to come back and avenge.

But, like nearly everything in life and sports, it’s bittersweet.  Bitter because it’s hard to let go of things.  Sweet because I get to go into the future, try new things, and meet new people.  There is not much more to ask for in life than those kinds of experiences.  There is no doubt that I’ll miss the people I’ve met and the relationships I’ve created, but at the same time, the future is bright and the opportunities are endless.  Great things completed in high school become a springboard for greater things to be done in college and the best things to be done in adulthood.  Peaking doesn’t come in high school.  It’s only the beginning.

I could fill the rest of this column with sentimental quotations from famous authors that lived a hundred years ago, but I feel like that would just dumb down what I’ve already said.

But if I have to leave with one quotation, it would come from Thomas Edison: “If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astonish ourselves.”

We all have capabilities that we don’t know we have.  Life is finding them out and being astonished at the fact we can use them.

So, as the class of 2010 disperses towards the future, think about it.  How can you astonish yourself?

Daniel Gallen can be reached for comment at [email protected].