2017 : A Year in Review

January 

As we know, January 2017 was a month that changed my life. A little after midnight on the 1st, I met my boyfriend and the man that I will be with the rest of my life. God brought us together in the weirdest of places, but we were meant to find each other. Ass Jamz is where our love story began. The first two days of our relationship went without a hitch and he texted me super cute good morning messages, called at 7:00am, and just did all the right things. Before the week was over, things fell apart. He found out there was a warrant for his arrest and it completely changed the course of our relationship.

I got to meet his family and he got to meet mine. I thought it was going really well at first. His mom was opening up to me about things I didn't think she would. She told me about the town A grew up in and about her family. She told me about her own struggle with love. It was clear she was devoted to her granddaughter and went to the library to get her new books and movies. They read Dr. Seuss books before bed and when I told A's niece that A Wocket in My Pocket used to be my favorite, she knew exactly what I was talking about. It was going well. His sister's was different. She stopped whatever she was doing every hour or so to smoke. She had a friend over with her child. I happened to know her friend from middle school, but didn't know whether she would recognize me or not. I didn't talk much there. Just whispers to A. We took the five love languages quiz and got the same results. We ate cupcakes and watched the episode of their cousin on Murry or Jerry Springer.

With the warrant hanging over his head, A considered running away. He had a ticket and everything, but the night before he left I begged him not to leave. His mom pleaded with him as well telling him that he has nothing to worry about and won't be found guilty of a crime he didn't commit. He chose to stay. He says he stayed for me. That really changed our relationship. I realized that I was important to him and that what he had with me was more important than anything else going on in his life. He was arrested shortly after and a lot of family drama arised. I stuck by him through that and even assisted in the process of bailing him out. He promised me he would change. In some ways he did, but in other ways he didn't. He was a work in progress and homeless. I let him secretly stay with me and he spent a couple weeks sneaking through the window until we finally got our financial situation right and moved into a new space.

My friend and I fulfilled our dreams of going on a double date together. It actually went well. The night started at Applebees and we each got the 2 for 20s. After Applebees, we went over to her boyfriend's apartment and hung out a little longer. All of them smoked and I didn't.

February 

I don't want to make this whole blog about bae, but he was a big part of everything. I got to experience my first Valentine's Day as a taken woman. Bae has no patience, so he gave me my gift the day before. I got flowers and chocolate cake. I got him polo socks and his favorite candy (skittles and starburst). He also took me to see 50 Shades of Grey. I returned the favor by taking him out to dinner. We tried to go to Longhorn at the Legends, but the line was way too long. We ended up settling on Yard House and had some delicious chicken and potato dish.

I started experiencing a lot of drama with my newly initiated sorority sisters. Me and the other older girl in the chapter were over everything. We had given the sorority way too much. I showed up 20 minutes late to a meeting one week which put everyone on edge. Me and the other girl didn't go to Meet the Greeks. I didn't think it would be a big deal since all of the women had attended the event before and I provided them with all the supplies they need. One girl ended up crying, because she looked up to me and felt that I would be a guide to her in the chapter but wasn't. I never apologized for not attending the event (because I didn't feel bad). Our relationship was never the same and the whole sorority was rocky after that point in time.

March

This was a good month, because I felt like I could finally start doing things for myself again. I got my hair braided and attended a male pageant. I also got to celebrate my little cousin's sweet sixteen with her. I went out to a club and went to a couple Karaoke Nights. Karaoke night was legendary, because I enjoyed hearing J sign Big Green Tractor every. single. time. Sometimes we would sign the cheetah girls as a group or anyone who really called our names. It was free spirited and I preferred the crowd to the Saturday Night people.

Bae participated in his first karaoke moment. We sang Dilemma together. You couldn't really hear us, but we had a good time together and that's all that matters. His case was dismissed and we believed that this would finally be the end of all those nerve wracking court dates and meetings with the lawyer.

I watched the movie Fences. Went out to eat with my high school friend group a lot. Went to a probate. Basically, I dove back into my regular pre-stress life and things were going fairly well in my relationship. Life was beautiful.

April 

I started off April by meeting the great Nikki Giovanni. It is absolutely amazing how many great opportunities KU has provided me with. In my time there, I have seen former presidents and countless notable people. I enjoyed hearing her speak and learning more about her. I also had the honor of a special sorority sister moment with her.

My lover and I discovered our love for bowling and went often. We also went on a memorable date to Dave and Busters.

I celebrated my friends 23rd birthday. I took a whole day off work and skipped school to watch her sky dive. It was a very exciting experience. I did my best to make sure she felt special and knew that had my undivided attention that day. Following sky diving, she was really excited to post the video they made for her. It was in a weird format, so we had to go to a library in the KC area in order to convert it. It took a long time, but I was right there with her while she did it. We then went to Boling's and I paid for her birthday lunch. We shopped around a little at Zona Rosa and then met up with our other friend J (not big green tractor J, but blue J). We ended the night at the Cheesecake Factory and I was exhausted. She had wanted to go clubbing, but I told her from the beginning that I likely wouldn't attend that. All her other friends bailed as well and she was upset. That's when she went off about how it isn't been a good day. She said that I spent the entire day talking about my boyfriend and she didn't like that. It hurt me, because she was the only person I was sharing my joy with regarding the relationship. It also hurt me because I spent the last 3 years listening to her talk about the same man for hours at a time. For me, that was one of the big moment where the friendship changed.

I celebrated my third deltaversay.

We lost Chapter of the Year to my enemies the year that I was president. I'll never get over it. But we had a successful delta week.

May

By the time finals week had arrived, it was clear that my grades were not what they needed to be. I was in trouble. I hadn't been putting in 100% and had some bad professors. I was trying everything to not end up on academic probation that semester. I believed that if I met the cumulative GPA then the semester GPA wouldn't matter. I was wrong and placed on academic probation.

GRADUATION!! I feel like I didn't even get time to soak in the joy of this big accomplishment. I celebrate the completion of my Bachelor of Arts degree in Human Biology. While I still had 2 classes to go, I was close to the finish line. I got to celebrate this momentous moment with my cousin who has been by my side since kindergarden. It was a very proud day for our family all around the world. My parents came to America so that their kids could have a better life. We fulfilled their dream. We worked hard and took the steps to make a better life for ourselves. I thank God for guiding me. The degree represented the end of a dark period of time for me. When I was kicked out of pharmacy school, I had no idea what I was doing with myself. I didn't know what to enroll in. I found myself in a mixture of courses for a bunch of different majors. I had two new jobs. The blessing was that 3 of my courses were with one of my new coworkers. In casual conversation, I asked her what her major is. She said her major was Human biology and I decided that mine would be too. Who would have thought that I would stick with it and complete it.

It wouldn't be my life if there wasn't a little drama. My friend made a scene and upset me by throwing it in my face that she came to my graduation. I know she meant well, but she didn't want to share her time with my boyfriend. It was quickly turning into a me vs. him thing that never should have started. He chose not to attend my graduation. Ended up getting hungover one of the days and working the other day. It broke my heart, because I had been there for him through all the highs and lows and he missed the moment that will be my pride and joy forever.

A got in legal trouble again. I can't call him bae when I'm upset with him. I was called into the police station and so was he. I realized that maybe everyone was right and people really don't change. I started to fear for myself, because I didn't want to interact with law enforcement. It changed the whole course of our relationship and year. This was the dark cloud that hung over us.

I started my internship. It went well, but I was tired and my feet hurt all the time.