Let's back track/rewind to August, a year ago today...
I had just been promoted to Assistant Manager at the company I work for and everything was going great! I was single, without a care in the world and ready to start my 2nd year at HPU. Yeah, all of that went to hell as soon as school started. Every direction I turned, there was always something. The first month of school was torture at best. I basically went out with my sisters for the first two weekends on campus and then I abandoned ship. I stopped going out and poured myself into my job and was barely going out or even attending class! I'd even met someone that worked with the company and started seeing him and all was "well." Somewhere around late August/early September, my manager went out of town and left me his apartment for the weekend to "host" some friends in the company. If you haven't noticed by now, inside the company we are all close friends. That was the night a lot of things changed. Before that night, I'd never realized how easy it was to get "roofied." Sounds pretty scary, right? Yeah, tell me about it when you wake up and everything is actually hazy and you can't see or think straight after having had half a glass of wine. Luckily, I was fine. Nothing terrible happened except for the drama that would later ensue. Now what's cool is I gave completely clear directions to Cook Out and back in this state. Not that it's a proud moment or anything, but I'd like to think that even in a state total black out (is that what they call it when you get roofied?) I was still able to give directions to get food. Hey, a girl's gotta eat!
Now I'm sure you're all just wondering about this whole love life situation I was in, huh? Just kidding, I know y'all don't really care, but I'll tell you anyways. The whole fall semester, I was a wreck. The whole breaking up, getting back together, breaking up again only to hate/loathe each other, then finally coming to a consensus that we could be friends thing with my ex wasn't helping and neither was my new "relationship" that was, to speak highly of it: rocky, was definitely NOT helping my grades/mental stability. I'm pretty sure I was depressed for a bit there. Whatever, I'm fine now.
Fast forward to late September...
I spent the weekend with my best girlfriend, Faith Frazier, in Charlotte! At this time, she had been trying to convince me to transfer and I wasn't hearing a word of it! On this particular night, her roommate was baking chocolate cupcakes with strawberry icing and in walks this guy who I honestly thought I would never see again. His name is Tori Mosley. He was cocky and full of himself as if he was some kind of godsend and I instantly knew that I wanted to mess up his cocky attitude. So, what else would I do? I made conversation. At the end of this conversation, he asked for my number and we began texting a little here and there. According to him, he said that was the day he told himself he was going to take me on a date. Obviously, I was already seeing someone, so that was NOT going to happen.
Fast forward to November...
By now, I had decided to transfer to UNCC. Faith never stopped giving me shit for this, but it's okay. I was really excited about the move! I'd found the perfect place to live, had my best friend a minute up the road, and the guy I was seeing another minute away. Life was good! At the end of the month I went to Niagara Falls with my company to tour our factory and made some new friends while I was there and even earned a battle scar on my left leg from what I can only assume was a mistake on the way back from Canada after several $200 bar tabs that night. Needless to say, I don't know how I got the scar or that I had even hurt myself until I awoke the next morning and I had a rather large bandaid on my left thigh. No one else seems to remember either, so I count it as a loss and a great night.
Fast forward to January...
I had pretty much endured the worst day "ever." My current relationship down the drain and my plans for the night were to eat ice cream and watch sad love stories. That's pathetic, I know. Trust me, I'll never be in that place again. Remember Tori? Yeah, he still hadn't taken me on this date he'd been trying to get me to go on for 4 months now. He just so happened to text me on this night. My options were to stay in and get fat off of ice cream or go out for dinner wherever I wanted to go. I took the free meal. After our first date, I really wasn't expecting to see much of this guy ever again. Truth be told, I wasn't over my ex and he was kind of just something fun.
February...
After Christmas, I worked my ass off for two straight weeks and won a trip to Jamaica with my company. A week in Jamaica with 2 of my best friends was just what the doctor ordered. My company had paid for us to go on an ALL INCLUSIVE trip to Jamaica. Do you KNOW what All Inclusive means? Not until you've experienced it. Let us just say that I enjoyed myself and indulged in the SWIM UP BAR and the 24/7 hot mess express buffet. Did I mention that I was ordering mixed shots so often that the bartenders mixed me two bottles and just gave them to me so I could do shots as I wished? I told you, I was "rewarding" myself for all of my hard work! I'd also like to take the time to say that there were some questionable life choices made while in Jamaica; like sailing with Cody King and him not actually paying attention to the instructor at all or maybe the visits to the bar before breakfast... Either way, I wouldn't say they were POOR life choices, I would however say that they were questionable. I had an amazing time and even won the Super Bowl Contest at Margaritaville and won $100! Look at that! Yvonne, in Jamaica, at Margaritaville, with a drink in hand, and I won more money than I spent on the trip. I'd say I was having the time of my life!
March...
In March, I spent a weekend in NYC with Tori. Remember? The guy who I was never going to see again? Yeah, not so much. We had a great time and froze our asses off, walked around in the snow, and waited an hour and a half to be seated at a TINY little restaurant called Shopsin's. I will say that it was best hour and half I've ever waited for. In this little market on Essex Street in NYC's Lower East Side, I fell in love (with food, that is). Shopsin's seats four parties at a time and each party can only have 4 people at the most. The place featured decorations that could have mirrored a college dorm and a fat chef who cursed and told lewd jokes. I was in cultural SHOCK and I loved every second of it. My meal was something out of a Dr. Seuss book! I ordered up a breakfast platter that included kimchi bbq pork on a bun, chili poutine, and date’n nut "slutty cakes." Take that Green Eggs and Ham! HA! My tastebuds were completely shocked. I didn't know what to think! Who thinks to put these things together or to call pancakes "slutty cakes?!" Obviously Kevin Shopsin, the culinary genius that he is. Side note: I'm almost positive that Tori was really scared of me driving into NYC, but was even more scared to do so himself. Luckily, I knew my way pretty well from all of my previous trips.
April/May...
The semester wore on and ended. I made TONS of new friends in Charlotte and spent my days with Tori and all of his brothers at Kappa Sigma. It was a really fun semester! At the end of May, I took a break from work so I could just relax and de-stress for a little while. I got bored.
June...
Summer wore on and I got REALLY bored, so I got back in the business and started working again and actually being productive. Things were going really well with Tori and before we knew it, we'd been seeing each other for a while! Everything seemed to be going really well and I loved every second of it. June wasn't really exciting, but that's alright.
July...
Guess where I went for July 4th? The BEACH!! (: Just like everyone else. I had an amazing week with Tori and his family before we both had to return to Charlotte. Now, the best part of this trip was after 8 months of seeing each other, Tori finally popped the question. No, not THE question. He had me SO worried all week and around midnight on July 4th (technically the 5th) he asks me to come outside and directs me through this long process just to get down to the beach. He had dug up the words "Will you be my girlfriend. Check Yes or No." in the sand and put tiny votive candles through out it. It was beautiful and I was beside myself with happiness. So, we finally made it official even though everyone else was already convinced that we were. I checked, well, actually I circled Yes, by the way. I don't like being told what to do! Haha!
August...
AND now it's August and I'm sitting here typing out this long ass post about God knows what like y'all even care. Hopefully you even finish this, but I can't actually believe many of you will. My wrist hurts from typing so much and I've just watched my first ever episode of American Horror Story. I am totally lost and need a hot bath and a glass of wine! I'm sitting here reflecting on my life in the past year and wondering how it just went by so quickly! All of the feelings I had a year ago, they are completely different. Everything that I wanted a year ago, have changed. It's funny how so much changes in as little as a year, but I'm glad it did. Nothing ever seems to work out the way you plan it to, but I'm a huge advocate of everything happening for a reason. If none of the terrible and wonderful things that happened to me would have never happened, I would not be who I am right now. I've been taught so much about myself and the world in this year and I plan to continue my education until the day I die.
Now, I know it's not what most people want to hear, but a wise guy once told me that in order to succeed, I just gotta get the hell out of my own way. Wise words that I'm trying to live by right now. I think everyone should take that into account. Somewhere along the way, we've all decided to just settle for mediocrity. Why aren't we fulfilling our dreams and our full potentials? Was it too hard? Were you scared to fail? I'm young and I've been through plenty of obstacles already! I don't call anything a failure (except if you fail to finish a drink, in which case I will tease you until you finish it and down another). I don't believe in failures at all. I believe that there are obstacles in life and that everyone has to get through them to meet their full potentials. So, now, instead of continuing to type (mainly because my wrist hurts!) I'm going to go out (well, I'm going to sleep now) and follow my heart and dream big, because I don't want to be sitting in a diner 10 years from now wishing I'd done that one thing. 10 years from now, I don't want to think about what I should have or could have done differently, I want to think about all of the crazy stuff I did, how much fun I had, and all of the lives I've impacted in positive ways because at the end of the day my life goal is to impact everyone I meet, even if only for a split second, in a positive way.
With all my love,
