"Greet one another warmly before you leave, for we do not know when we shall meet again."

My preacher back home used to say this at the end of every church service, and the words chilled me.

Why won't I see these people again?

Am I going to die?

Are they?

But I always enjoyed hearing him say that, because it was brutal honesty. (However, part of me still wonders if it was a guilt trip to keep the pews full week after week.)

It's true though. A preacher he may be, but only God himself (herself?) knows if we'll live through the week.

I get the same feeling every time I listen to James Taylor's "Fire and Rain."

You know that line that says, "But I always thought that I'd see you again"?

It's a disturbing reminder that anyone can be taken away from you just like that.

The main point of both of these heart-wrenching quotes is to tell you to show people you care about them before it's too late.

It goes along the same lines as never going to sleep mad or never leaving on bad terms.

You just never know what could happen before you have time to right a wrong.

With the quarter's end upon us, we will all soon be saying goodbyes. Some of us are graduating, others have friends who are.

And so many of us don't know when we shall meet again. Sure, there's the cliched, "Let's not lose touch, OK?" or the, "I promise I'll come visit."

But we all know from high school that just doesn't always work out the way you planned, mainly because around this time of year, we all start making empty promises to people we never cared much for anyway.

But sometimes we do tell the truth.

Take the roommate you were inseparable from, for example. She might end up pregnant and unable to travel (well, that's what happened to mine, and guys, this probably doesn't apply as much to you).

Of course, the opposite is also true.

There will be people you say goodbye to and never expect to see again, and then they appear in some major form in your life.

Last summer Alan English, now the executive editor of The (Shreveport) Times, took all the interns and new employees out to lunch to welcome us.

"Look around this table," he said. "Remember these faces, because no matter where you are, I promise you will run into these people again."

The world is funny like that.

It seems so small when you run into people you haven't seen in years.

But it's way too big when you miss someone you don't see enough.

I personally don't handle goodbyes very well. I still cry when I leave Opelousas after a good weekend (I'm quite the over-emotional fool).

And saying goodbye to "Friends" last Thursday was enough to send me into fits (I cried then, too, but I think that problem can only be solved by more therapy).

Goodbyes don't stop with your college friends, either. They're a part of life, and you never know when you're going to have to face one. I guess we just have to get used to it.

There's only one week left of classes, and many of us aren't coming back in September.

So especially in the next week, when you run into someone you care about, (first apologize, then) skip the goodbyes -- they're too hard.

Just greet one another warmly.

Heidi Hausmann is a senior journalism major from Opelousas and serves as editor for The Tech Talk. E-mail comments to heidihausmann@hotmail.com.