Day 110

I get people coming up to me all.the.time. saying 'Something looks different about you...' or 'I didn't recognize you until I heard your voice!' and I then have to explain the whole process of having surgery. It is crazy to me that 3+ months post-op, I am still going through exactly what I had done. I feel like I have told the same story hundreds of times, from months pre-op, to months post-op. It is so odd to me how many people can't quite figure out who I am. I am sure there is so much gossiping (not in a hurtful way) about my changes in appearance in my sorority house. I have had many girls come up to me and say 'I didn't know who you were, and I turned to so-and-so and asked them 'who is that blonde girl?'. I did my best to tell a majority of my chapter about the surgery, but most of them didn't realize there would be changes in my face. I really have confused a lot of people.

Day 110. I can't believe it has been 1/3 of a year already. It sounds completely impossible. I remember every moment from surgery day and each day for weeks afterwards. I certainly still think about surgery a lot, as I am still dealing with braces, elastics, and people having trouble recognizing me.

My sister had a genioplasty yesterday. If you look back on the post I did on her wedding you can see she has a very little chin that looks recessed, although there are no issues with her jaw and her bite is right on. She opted to have a genioplasty after YEARS of being so self-conscious of her profile and the way her chin looked. I know that jaw surgery is not a cosmetic procedure, but there are many of us who have opted to have a genioplasty, which IS cosmetic, to get what we feel are the best results, and I am so happy she is able to get the same thing for herself. We got mistaken for twins countless times before I had surgery, but since the surgery I know we didn't look as similar. WELL, now she is my little twin again :) Our chins look so much more similar! Yay! I love that we look alike, it makes me happy.

Do you ever have moments where you love life even more than normal? I am in one of those places right now. I am so happy with where I am at, how the surgery turned out, the way I look and feel, and where my life is going. In the last few weeks, I have made a group of friends that I can see being life long. I have had so much fun even in the first week of classes, I got an internship (YAY!) and although I don't have a job after graduation, I do have a place to live in California, which is where I have wanted to move to foreverrr. My friends are beginning to move away, but now I have so many places to visit :) I realize this isn't really jaw related, but I am a happy girl and needed to share with you!

I went pigeon hunting yesterday (my life is weird) and a friend snapped this when I wasn't paying attention. I like sharing these pictures because everyone can make themselves look a certain way when posing for pictures, but this is what I look like in my normal life (minus the ridiculous ponytail and camo gear)