I heard over the intercom in a scratchy voice as were hurrying into the Gerald R. Ford International Airport; “American Airlines flight 238 now boarding at gate 7.”   We were trying to find the gate that Totte and his family needed to board at. Totte, an exchange student, lived with us for the year and his family: visiting for the week. It was Totte’s final moments here in Grand Rapids, Michigan: trying to spend every last second with his closest friends he made here at school. We all learned in those final moments that saying goodbyes aren't fun, they are difficult, and very emotional.
Finally, we find the gate and a good seat close to the departure monitor so that we can find out if the flight will be on time or not. The memories that we started to talk about were the best part of that moment because they made you forget about the very near future that we will all soon have to face; thus the time was a little less emotional. In my head I thought; I can’t wait to see him again one day. The funniest thing was Totte’s weird magic things that he did: such as hiding a card behind his fingers or confusing you when you try to say something; you would have thought that the card would never be found at the moment.
Then after we were there for a while my mom asked us, “Should we take a picture so that we can capture this moment?”
And we all responded-
“Sure that sounds like a good idea.” We took a picture next to Gerald R. Ford’s head statue. We had a stranger ask us if he could take it with all of us instead of missing a person in the photo. During the picture things started to get emotional after we realized that this will be our last memory to capture the moment later on.

Next, we all started to say our goodbyes to the Moberg family since the intercom came on and told us that,
“Delta airlines flight 108 just landed” which was the flight that Totte and his family were leaving on to go to Salt Lake City then on to Vancouver and finally back home to Finland… By then it was pretty emotional and people were starting to cry because they weren't going to see Totte for a while. We had to help them make sure they had all of the stuff that they needed for the flight over to Salt Lake City.
Finally, we heard them say over the intercom,
“Delta airlines flight 108 now boarding.” We said our last goodbyes and watched them walk down the terminal until we couldn’t see them anymore. By this time all those present had tears in their eyes and were thinking about when we would be able to see Totte again. We all learned that goodbyes were not fun and you don’t want to go through them often. We still keep in touch with Totte and his family to this day and even went there to visit him and our other two exchange students that we have hosted.