{"id":442,"date":"2016-11-23T12:44:20","date_gmt":"2016-11-23T20:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agoodhurt.com\/monology\/?p=442"},"modified":"2016-11-25T09:38:38","modified_gmt":"2016-11-25T17:38:38","slug":"goodbyehello","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agoodhurt.com\/monology\/goodbyehello\/","title":{"rendered":"GOODBYE\/HELLO"},"content":{"rendered":"

[A young black man, skinny and short. He has a calmed stare and a soothing speaking voice<\/em>.]<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve worked at the airport cafeteria for over ten years now, but my dream was to go to college, become a teacher. And I would have if my very religious father wouldn\u2019t have kicked me out of the house the day I told him I\u2019m gay.<\/p>\n

I was barely eighteen; I had to hustle to survive. But I don\u2019t hold any grudges against my father\u2026 even though he had nothing to do with me for years.<\/p>\n

Well, maybe I do have one grudge against him for not letting me visit my grandmother on her deathbed. He didn\u2019t even allow me to attend her funeral mass.<\/p>\n

She had been a very important part of my childhood, of my emotional upbringing, and it hurt so much to know I\u2019d never see her again. I thought I\u2019d missed my last opportunity to say goodbye to her, to let her know how much I loved her.<\/p>\n

Although I tried not to think too much about it, I got obsessed\u2026 so much so, that every night after my shift at the cafeteria was over, I would walk up to the departures terminal of the airport. There, snuggled up in a corner, I would watch the travelers saying good-bye to their families, their partners, their friends, with hugs, tears, kisses\u2026 and I\u2019d imagine those strangers were me and my grandma, saying our good-byes to each other.<\/p>\n

It was like therapy; I thought it\u2019d help me close the wound of not getting my chance.<\/p>\n

Until one night, right when I was about to leave the airport, I saw a couple hugging in the middle of the terminal. There was something special in the way they were embracing, with desperation, with anxiety. I couldn\u2019t stop staring. I knew that\u2019s how I\u2019d have said goodbye to my grandma, with that intensity and sincerity.<\/p>\n

I felt so sad, my eyes started watering.<\/p>\n

But then the couple held hands and walked toward the airport exit while the woman insisted on helping the man, who had only just arrived, with his luggage.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when I started crying\u2026 out of joy, when I realized that saying hello and saying goodbye were very similar, mirror images of the same experience; two extremes whose mutual attraction keep the cycle of existence spinning.<\/p>\n

Anyway\u2026<\/p>\n

I now sit in the arrivals terminal each night after work. There, I watch people greeting and welcoming each other, just like grandma and I will do whenever we reunite again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Are you an actor or director interested in using this monologue? Contact us in ABOUT MONOLOGY!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0Copyright Abel Gonzalez 2016<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[A young black man, skinny and short. He has a calmed stare and a soothing speaking voice.] \u201cI\u2019ve worked at the airport cafeteria for over ten years now, but my dream was to go to college, become a teacher. And I would have if my very religious father wouldn\u2019t have kicked me out of the … Continue reading GOODBYE\/HELLO<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[72,22],"tags":[328,326,318,324,320,322,330],"class_list":["post-442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-death","category-love","tag-death","tag-farewell","tag-goodbye","tag-greeting","tag-hello","tag-reencounter","tag-spirit"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nGOODBYE\/HELLO - Monology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I\u2019ve worked at the airport cafeteria for over ten years now, but my dream was to go to college, become a teacher. 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