&

Here I am, back at it again with a new post (if you read that in the "Damn Daniel" voice I love you lol - Vine reference). So first off, you're probably thinking "Uh why is THAT her title???"... For those of you who don't know, I have an ampersand tattoo in the inside of my right ankle (seen below). No it didn't hurt, it literally took like 6 minutes to complete. WHOOP. 
Again, you're probably thinking "Why does she have a random symbol like that tattooed on herself for the rest of her life???" This is what goes through my mind when someone questions me about my tattoo. In Latin, the word ampersand is made up of 2 words, "Per se" & "and". "Per se" essentially means "by itself".  This is a reminder to me that I am who I am throughout the journey of my life. But there's always an "and" to keep me balanced, whether that is God, my family, or friends. Secondly, the ampersand represents a broken infinity symbol, reminding me that nothing lasts forever, but there's an expectation of something more to occur (even though I might not know it yet).
My tattoo is a constant reminder of self growth and to keep chiseling myself into the kind of person I want to be. It's an indication for the future. My whole life right now is one huge &. I just celebrated my 20th birthday this past Thursday (9/7 -Virgos where you at) and it was a huge milestone. 20. I am 2 freaking decades old. *cries* That right there is a reminder that I have accomplished a lot in my 2o years AND I am no where near finished.
In my last post, I said I was about to be bombarded with sorority recruitment.... I went through the process, had an absolute BLAST, and met a ton of amazing girls. But I decided that I wanted to focus solely on my grades this first semester and get them up to my standard before making that time commitment to a chapter. My plan is to go through spring recruitment in 2018 and I could not be more excited!!! The reason I brought this up is 1.) to update y'all because I have had a lot of my friends wonder why I hadn't posted a bid day picture lol and 2.) to prove this point - there's always more to what you see, even though you might not know it at the time. At first when I decided to withdraw from recruitment, I was upset. I didn't think I was making the right decision... I was SO excited to find my "home" and meet a solid group of girls I could call my sisters. Now I realized, I did make the right call. I can focus this semester on settling into this new town and campus, along with studying extra hard to keep those grades up. This alone makes me even more confident and ready for what I can bring to my future sorority.
My point this week is simple. You're not finished. Even when you think you've hit a dead end or can't pick yourself up when you fall, you can. AND once you're up, don't look back.. Because you're not going that way :)

My "&" :)

My best friend Brylie and I at my 20th birthday party