You can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks, or even months over-analyzing a situation, trying to put the pieces together, justifying what could've would've happened-or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and move the fuck on. -Tupac Shakur

Sorry guys, I had to do it...Tupac putting it pretty fucking eloquently.



I had my moment of wallowing, now I am picking myself up by my bootstraps, putting on my big girl panties, and moving forward. After all, when people walk away from you, let them go. Your destiny is never ties to anybody who leaves you, and it doesn't mean that they are bad people, it just means that their part in your history is over.

Its times like these when I look at my hip. With every goodbye you learn. I repeat that to myself and remember that maybe it just means that this was meant to be a learning experience, to better prepare me for what lies ahead of me. Maybe its just preparing me to be ready for some great things to come. I am keeping my head up and my eyes bright. Staying strong and being the confident and positive woman that I know I am.



After all (sorry for all the quotes, but it feels right today)...

I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right, you believe lies so that eventually you learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so that better things can fall together. -Marilyn Monroe

Now...for a story...A story about what has shaped me, a story I do not share lightly. A story very few people know. I am letting you in on a piece of me with this, please treat it delicately and with care...

This is the story of the background of the above referenced quote I have on my hip that reads "With every goodbye you learn".

It was 1989. My father had just told my mother that he would pay for an abortion or help her pick a family but other than that, if she chose to keep me, he wanted nothing to do with either of us. She was barely 19 years old and found herself alone and scared, not knowing what to do. She had already made the decision that she was keeping me. I cannot imagine what was going through her mind during this time.

She was looking through the paper and came across a post in a Dear Abby, almost identical to the Ann Landers column below.



It resonated with her. She read it multiple times, had a good cry, picked herself up and moved forward with grace and her head high. My mother is such a strong and amazing woman for making the choices she did and she will forever be my hero and best friend.

She cut out that Dear Abby article that day and laminated it with scotch tape. It is now one of the most important things that I hold possession of. It sits in a jewelry box next to my grandmother's wedding ring and a few other family heirlooms dear to my heart.

I am moving forward with the grace of a woman and not the grief of a child and am doing my best to build my roads on today.

I am trying to learn.

xoxo
Bradley