my life after college

a german tale of love and signs

I mentioned that I was going to elaborate on God's little signs for us.

Everyone needs to hear this story. Everyone.

Stephanie, a sweet friend of mine, has been struggling with a huge life decision over the past few days.

In a nutshell:

Last September, Stephanie met Tobias ...  a gorgeous international student from Germany working in Tuscaloosa for an internship. To say they "fell for each other" is an understatement. They did everything together, spent every waking moment together, completely understood each other, the works. But his internship was up in December and his departure date was upon them before they knew it.

They both shed tears as he boarded the plane, exchanged "I love you"s and agreed to stay in touch with each other in order to make a plan for them to be together (sound familiar?)

Stephanie started taking Rosetta-Stone lessons in German and  started her job hunt in random German cities  that she knew nothing about. She skyped Tobi ... "The German" as we all called him ... everyday, sent him voice messages everyday, did everything she could to stay in touch throughout all of the spring semester and the summer semester.

Their plan was for her to pack up her bags after graduation and move to Germany for two months to see if she could adapt to the culture. She decided she was going to tell her parents about the plan on their drive back from Tuscaloosa to Dallas ... her parent's new place of residence.

Okay, so now we are up to speed

On Monday morning, Stephanie called me in tears. She had told her parents of her plan and (not surprisingly) they were not okay with it. They brought up several different issues that Stephanie hadn't thought of and completely shook up her confidence with her decision. She then ... very hesitantly ... said to me, "I haven't wanted to admit it, but I've been feeling this inkling. It's an inkling that is whispering to me that I don't need to go".

I said to her, "You can't ignore that. That's happening for a reason". I then told her of all the signs God had hit me with that I completely ignored with  my last relationship and how it eventually ended horribly because I hadn't paid attention.

She said, "Amy, I need a huge slap in the face. I need a huge sign to literally tell me what to do. Otherwise, I'll ignore them too."

I said to her, "Well, I know this sounds crazy ... but you need to sit down and ask God and the universe and whoever you think is in charge to send. you. a sign. between now and in the morning. Seriously. I firmly believe if you are genuine in thinking these signs can actually happen, then you'll get one".

She agreed. She thanked me for the advice and hung up the phone, promising me she was going to ask for her sign.

After she had asked her special favor from the universe and prayed like she'd never prayed before, she went to Twitter and simply said " Waiting for signs from the universe" ... (naturally) ...

About five hours later, I received the following picture message from her:

Yup. 

The Universe tweeted back at her and LITERALLY SENT HER A STOP SIGN. 

I picked up the phone and after we both freaked out over what had happened, I asked her what she was going to do. 

"I'm not going, I asked for a sign and I got one and I'm not going", she said. 

If you are struggling with anything at all .... let this be a testament to the power of prayer. 

ten lessons

saturday was the definition of bittersweet.

my year at the university of alabama came to an end, thus ending an INSANE amount of work and stress in my life .... and a super tight friendship with a group of amazing people that i never expected to fall in love with.

my goals and priorities a year ago were so incredibly different from what they are now.

a year ago, i was focused on one thing: a bro. getting settled down with the bro and sticking out the program for a year until we could implement a settling down plan ... to be exact.

but that was not what life had in store for me.

instead, life decided to teach me a few lessons. here's ten of them.

lesson 1 -- i'm completely in the right field. i love public relations and everything it entails. my years of studying in this certain area were definitely not a waste. this is where i'm supposed to be.

lesson 2 -- even if someone loves something that you hate, a relationship can still be fostered. my phi mu friend is the best example of this lesson. she's all about some greek livin' and i've always wanted nothing to do with that ... but, i love lisa with all my heartstrings and already miss her italian face.

lesson 3 -- God really does hit you across the face with signs to communicate with you. we just have to be super careful to keep a close eye out for them. they are definitely there (more on that later)

lesson 4 -- it's so completely important to develop your own opinions from your own personal experiences. i've strongly disliked anything and everything UA for as long as i can remember ... but i walked away with a completely different perspective (i'm still an auburn fan though, people. no worries)

lesson 5 -- magic exists in the back booth at the innisfree in tuscaloosa.

lesson 6 -- i'm way more southern that i would care to admit.

lesson 7 -- one can never have too many girlfriends. for the most part boyfriends come and go ... but girlfriends should remain a constant. girlfriends are essential. end of story.

lesson 8 -- you can make plans for your life all day long, but if it isn't what God has in mind for you ... it won't happen. and in time, you'll understand why.

lesson 9 --  friendships change but it's not a bad thing. it's life. the types of friendships i have with certain people have evolved over the years because that's what happens because life happens.

lesson 10 -- makeup remover wipes are a heavenly thing.

long live my one year in tuscaloosa, alabama. i'd do it all over again tomorrow if i could.