Something that took the words right out of my mouth:

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A virtual thumbs up to this:

Read this quote, fall in love with it as I did, then click on the link to the original piece, and enjoy:

"It’s just this strange thing I do where I allow myself to briefly fall in love with another human being that I see on a train, or the sidewalk, or in a warm café."

- Chelsea Fagan, Dear Beautiful Guys I Pass On The Street: I Love You 

image via 

“Our culture has accepted two huge lies: The first is that if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle, you must fear them or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don’t have to compromise convictions to be compassionate.”

-Rick Warren

What I'm listening to (on repeat):

"Who, being loved, is poor?"
- Oscar Wilde

To the man who'll bring me flowers just because,

I must confess that I'm not always the most studious sophomore in college. Tomorrow morning at 9am I have a Spanish test and I have yet to really start studying. Just as I was about to, I decided it would be wiser for me to relieve the stress of all those in the room & dance around and sing Lizzie McGwire. Yes, sometimes I can be absolutely ridiculous, but I pray that someday you'll love me all the more for it.

Always yours,

me

A note for the days you feel the loneliness in your bones:

Wanting an amazing man to have & to hold all the days of your life is a beautiful aspiration that I promise you will, some day, be realized. Just make sure while you're "waiting around" you're also making yourself the kind of woman you've always wanted to be.

You wouldn't {or at least shouldn't} settle for less than you deserve in the dating world,
so why would you settle for less than the best version of yourself you can become?

Keep your head up,
L.A.

image via

"Being realistic is the most common path to mediocrity."
-Will Smith 

What irritates me (about myself)

That I often compare myself to the average girl in college and forget that I am never going to be that average girl, and that I never should want to be.
{Who in the hell wants to be average anyway?}

That I belittle myself and my dreams and allow others to make me feel small.
{Quite a feat considering I'm over six feet tall in the boots I've been favoring lately.}

That I compare my gifts to others gifts.
{To call a spade a spade, I'm often ungrateful for what the good Lord has blessed me with.}

That I forget how brave and strong I am.

That I forget that right alongside the lover in me is the fighter who always defends what she loves.

That I settle for less than my best.

That I make except my own excuses.

"What you are is a complicated girl with simple needs. You need your books and time to read, and you need a few friends and you need someone-not to take care of you, but to care for you. If you have all those things, you’ll always be alright."
- “Breakable You” by Brian Morton

A reminder for myself:

-Even though someday you will more than likely be a girlfriend, fiance, wife, and then mother, today is not that day, and that is not just okay, but how it's meant to be.
(LIVE life for what it is now. Dreaming is good, but wishing away your present is wasteful.)

-No matter what you're going through, pity-parties are bullshit.
(In the words of my father, "Rub some dirt in it and don't get mad [or sad]. Get even.")

Because time is precious:

"Don’t settle. Don’t finish crappy books. If you don’t like the menu, leave the restaurant. If you’re not on the right path, get off it."
-Chris Brogan

"You’re alive. That means you have infinite potential. You can do anything, make anything, dream anything. If you change the world, the world will change."
-Neil Gaiman

"Why are we so full of restraint? Why do we not give in all directions? Is it fear of losing ourselves? Until we do lose ourselves there is no hope of finding ourselves."

- Henry Miller

A starless night

{via}

"How are you?"

"Good."

Not the truth, but not quite a lie either, because you're not bad.

No, not bad. You're fine.

You're blessed.

You've have a wonderful family, amazing friends, the opportunity to further your education, a roof over your head, a warm bed to sleep in, a belly full of ice cream, and a God who loves you more than you could ever comprehend.

Yet here you are, also stressed, exhausted, sad, and empty.

You've asked yourself the same question time and time again over the past couple of weeks,

"Why do I feel so damn broken?"

The place where in your heart that used to be filled with joy now seems to be but an empty cavity in your chest. Here you are, hollow and hurting, without the slightest inclination as to where this wound has come from.

What caused this crack in your spirit?

"Can those around me tell that I'm not really alive anymore?"

"Don't they see me walking around wearing the best mask I can muster?"

"The mask of a woman fulfilled?"

"How is it I'm back here again?

Feeling completely alone though surrounded by those I love most?"

Why is it so hard to combat these lies, even when we see them for what they are,

lies straight from the pit of hell?

It feels as if the starless night you've been living in is about to swallow you whole.

Tonight, as you climb into bed with a rosary wrapped around hand,

you promise God your prayer will be simple.

"Help."

I wonder often

if tomorrow will hold us
how today didn’t.

Daily Haiku on Love by Tyler Knott Gregson

"Sometimes you’ve got to be able to listen to yourself and be okay with no one else understanding."
— Christopher Barzak

I keep finding you

in unassuming places,
in random faces.

Daily Haiku on Love by Tyler Knott Gregson

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"Perhaps the most important thing we bring to another person is the silence in us. Not the sort of silence that is filled with unspoken criticism or hard withdrawal. The sort of silence that is a place of refuge, of rest, of acceptance of someone as they are."
— Rachel Naomi Remen 

How much more will I enjoy love songs
when I finally find that someone
who makes them mean something to me?