The art of saying goodbye

Last week saw Jon Stewart saying goodbye to the Daily Show. I am not a huge fan of his but I sat down to watch his very last show, I am always curious/interested in seeing how people/tv shows say goodbye. I mean goodbyes can be awkward, too long, too short, too sappy etc. You rarely see a perfect goodbye.




Even though I had lost interest in F.R.I.E.N.D.S after season 6, I watched the series finale and thought it was an amazing way of saying goodbye to the show with all six of them leaving their keys on the table before leaving the apartment. And Jon Stewart's goodbye was a classy one too.

Goodbyes are always hard, even if it's saying goodbye to friends at a party. When someone gets up to say goodbye to the hosts, the party almost feels like it's over and you can see other people getting up to leave too. Interestingly, there's something called an Irish Goodbye, where guests don't necessarily say bye to the hosts or anyone at the party and just leave. Yup, they just disappear. It might seem like a rude thing to do, but think about it. Would you rather say goodbye to the hosts and break the party or just leave and then send the hosts a text or a sweet email in the morning? Tough one, but kinda makes sense, no?

Coming back to Jon Stewart's goodbye, like I mentioned earlier, his goodbye was a classy one. He didn't waste words. All he said was "Nothing ends, It's just a continuation. It's a pause in the conversation. So rather than saying goodbye or good night, I'm just going to say: I'm going to go get a drink. And I'm sure I'll see you guys before I leave."

Doesn't that make a perfect goodbye?