Yesterday afternoon I got a new tattoo. One I have been wanting for a while.

The last year has literally been chaos.

With my parents divorcing, having to switch churches, brother moving to Japan and getting married, me moving to London for grad school…it all is just so exhausting.

Always playing the peace keeper between family members can really put weight on your shoulders…and everyone has different ways of releasing that pressure.

Music has been my escape.

I am one of those people. When I like a song…I listen to it on repeat till I can’t listen to it anymore.

One song, that has really touched me and helped me through the last year is a song by my ever so favourite artist, Brandon Heath. The song? Love Never Fails.

Now, we all know that the verse about love never failing is from 1 Corinthians 13.

However, Brandon did a great job of taking that verse and making it into a song that I will forever remember, and tear up to.

The tattoo I got has some of the lyrics to Brandon’s song…these words outline a cross.

It says in a beautiful, cursive font

“Love will protect. Love always hopes. Love still believes when you don’t. Love is the arms that are holding you. Love never fails you…” 

Those words have run through my head multiple times when I thought everything was just going to crash down around me.

Those words helped me to stay strong…

for my mom…my brothers…my sister…my friends.

Whatever the case may be. I knew that with Love on my side..everything would be alright, and I would make it through.

That is why this tattoo means to much to me…and why this song means so much to me.

So, here is the song, I hope you can see why I fell in love with it.

Having coffee with a few friends whilst I am at home, we got on the topic of boys…(shocker).

We started talking about our past and/or current relationships and we came to the conclusion:

Selfish people will never have good relationships. A healthy relationship is about putting someone else before yourself and thinking about their needs.

Well, that got me thinking..and even got me realising a few things about myself.

In some of my past relationships, whether its boyfriends, friends, or even family, I always put their needs before mine and will do whatever it takes to make sure they are alright….

but did they do the same for me?

I can think of at least a handful of people who took advantage of my generosity and never bothered to ask how I was…or see what was really going on inside this thing called my noggin.

It is just so strange that we can put so much effort into making a relationship work, when in all honesty, it may be one that will never work out like you want.

It could be that the person you call your “best friend” has not even bothered to contact you since you moved. Has not stayed in touch. Or just has not cared about anything but what they are doing in their live.

Or, it could be you have a brother or sister who use you, whether it is for rides, money, or any other thing that they could want that you have.

You could even be in a one-sided relationship. You put in all the effort…and the other person just sits by with not even an occasional “thank you”.

Relationships like these will never work…as much as we may want them to.

Selfish people have a lot to work on if they expect others to want to stay in relationships with them.

Do you have relationships like these in your life?

If so, maybe it is time for you to think about how much those relationships are really worth…

Thanks to my girls, I realised what relationships in my life I have that I keep trying so hard to mend and make last…when in all honesty…they will never truly work out the way I would like them to.

As you all know I had to stop blogging.

Although it was a real excuse that I would be busy traveling, it was also due to the GIANT surprise my family was in for on Monday.

On Monday I took three tube lines, a 30 minute train ride, hopped on British Airways and flew 9.5 hours to fly home for Christmas.

My family had no idea!

Thanks to my best friend Katie, Richard, my other bestie Alissa, and Albert I managed to not only surprise my family, but also to surprise my friends at work and diving as well!

All the surprises were filmed, so do not fear, I will post the video once it is completely edited and looking FABULOUS!

There are two stories posted: My family’s surprise and my friends’ surprise.

So click either of the two links to check out the surprises!

Christmas Surprise: Family Edition

Christmas Surprise: Friends Edition

I love you all.

HOWEVER, I will be taking a break the next month and may not be blogging once a day.

I will be traveling and will update my blog and things when possible.

Don’t be to sad.

I will start back after Christmas break is complete!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

WOW. I can’t believe it. As of right now… I AM DONE WITH MY FIRST SEMESTER OF GRADUATE SCHOOL!

This is insane.

What a weird feeling. I feel like just yesterday I was applying for graduate schools, just freshly graduated from USF with my bachelors…and now… I am half way through grad school.

After all the stress in Radio. The laughs on Thursdays. Complaining and meltdowns on Mondays class. Jokes we have among our course. Through everything we went through we came out on top.

We made it guys! We finished our first semester without killing ourselves or killing eachother… even though at some times we worried about a few of you

Now we have a month off…away from eachother. I can’t believe the people who have been there through everything with me will be away from me for a month!

Then we will be back together for the second semester.

Then we will start over again with the stress.

Until then! Cheers! To the fact we lived through our first semester!

Drink! Be merry! Enjoy the break!