Happy New Year, my friends! I hope 2024 has welcomed you with a renewed sense of purpose and resolve to live your best life. The last quarter of 2023 impacted my life in so many positive ways. Indeed, finding love again has been the highlight for sure – more about that later. ☺️

My increased confidence, focused spirituality, and acute self-awareness has landed me where I’m most free – leading others in a school setting, while advocating for my own growth and development, in an environment that is customized for my purpose, fulfillment, and daily contentment. The end of 2023 brought me to a birthday milestone in November – 55 years of life has been God’s gift to me, and I don’t take His blessings lightly.

Surrendering to the inevitable can be a journey that brings discomfort – but if the destination is divinely ordered to shape you and challenge what you think you know about yourself, the move is more palatable. I spent almost all of 2023 in “comfortable” learning orientation. In my job as a district-level administrator, I knew that the learning curve for me would be positive, for the most part, easy, and without a doubt, centered around my current knowledge base and skill set. In November, just after my 55th birthday, a shift occurred that brought me directly in front of my fears – leaving that comfort zone – to grow and push into my purpose. I am grateful for mentorship, along with wisdom, reflective practice, and the absolute insistence that I be better, do better, work harder, live smarter, seek to understand, ask the right questions, make the right connections, use what I know, lean on my network, see the genius in teamwork, use my influence, be kind to others, and smile. Yes, smile. My mentor once told me, “Isolate yourself with excellence.” I’ve never forgotten the power of those words. If you can do something, with excellence, you’ll remain a commodity; you’ll remain valuable in an industry with millions of stars, but with limited Super Stars. This recipe for success drives me to get up every morning and give all that I can to be impactful and transform lives through my energy and desire to make a difference.

Oooo, Chile! While minding the business that pays me, love has crept in and changed my whole world! It’s so true that when you’re well-adjusted, emotionally safe, spiritually-balanced and consistently in the Word, your life takes on a whole new shape. One of joy…one of peace…one of contentment…one of love. I’ve marveled at how methodically love re-entered my life, knocked me over with a feather, just after showing me a handful of instances of what I thought I wanted vs. what I truly needed. Emotional safety has been what I needed, but it seemed to manifest, in previous relationships, as more transactional and conditional and less safe and reassuring, if that makes sense. To understand that you are as liked as you are loved is a different feeling for me. To have common interests and to pursue those commonalities is a different experience for me. To know that you can be your authentic self and wake up knowing that being yourself is enough is a different reality for me. Being emotionally vulnerable to a man who says he loves me has always been a struggle for me; it has been a pathway to hurt and disappointment. However, his approach was different, by his own admission, and over the course of just a year of freedom, exploration, intentionality, exclusivity, and yes, consistency, we fell in love. Three days before Christmas 2023, and 24 hours prior to an eight-day Bahamian cruise with my cousin, I said, Yes!” to a lifetime with Mr. Antonio Harvey. Since he was not on the cruise with me, I know I can’t get you to understand how GIDDY I was for eight whole days after the proposal – until I could see MY FIANCÉ again! Forever is a long, long time, and we are both blessed to have an infinite opportunity to share our lives, hopes, dreams, best AND worst selves, and join our families in October 2024 as we commit to each other in front of God and a special group of family and close friends.

As my locs mature, my blog has morphed into a cathartic recant of the trials and joys of my life – less about my Sisterlocks- more about how my hair has evolved while I’ve been living my best life. I recognize the value in sharing select portions of my world, and I am grateful for your interest and “followship.” This will be the final entry for AndisLocks. I welcome 2024, and all that it brings – for me and for you.

I started this blog in 2016 because I wanted to share my loc journey. If I’ve inspired one or a hundred over the past seven years, as I reach the year of completion (7 says it all), it is I who has gained from sharing my life with you. I wish you infinite joy, divine peace, good health, and beautiful locs! ♥️

Signing Off, 😘

Andi D