A Gift For Me...You Shouldn't Have!

My God Mother always told me to be prepared for a special occassion to roll around and you don't recieve anything, make sure you take of yourself and give a gift to you. When she first dropped that knowledge on me I sided eyed her, shiit i was to young to think anyone to ever forget about me or my birthday, I'm baby girl who would ever forgot me or my birthday, x-mas, valentine's day or any other holiday that involved gifts. I learned on my 16th birthday which also happene to be my sister's graduation day from college that my Aunt was right,...they forgot about me and I wasn't prepared. My family was so excited and wrapped up in my sister receiving her degree that no one noticed the big milestone I was crossing. No cake, gifts or happy birthday wishes my 16th birthday was one of the saddest days ever for me in my teenage years. I learned that my God Mother was telling me something good when I thought she was talking out of the side of her neck. From that day forward I buy myself something for every holiday and I mean every holiday, its just a little thank you to myself for all the hard work I put in throughout the year. Xmas, Halloween, st. Patrick's day I always I have something nice to open up but nothing is quite as special as my birthday. Each year I try and get something that I will forever see and think of the good and bad of that birthday. Last year it was a silver braclet holding mybirthstone in it and when I see it I think of the good times I shared with my friends that night and my brother surprising and ccoming back home east early. This year I want to mark another year of me with a tattoo, if you know me well you probably just rolled your eyes at the idea because I am the proud owner of 9 tattoo so where in da hell would i put another one and that is a good question because I certainly have no clue where this new tattoo will be put all i know is a tattoo is going to my gift to myself. I did have 1 location in my mind behind my left ear I'm going to ink my body with an Adinka Symbol<----- go ahead and click that if you don't know what that is.

I already have this one:

Gye Nyame

meaning:

I fear no man, supreme being or force but God

Just like that one I want to go with some thing that has great meaning and purpose to reside behind my ear. Before I decided that Adinka symbol was what I was going back with this time around I did research other symbols from other parts of the world but in the end my heart was with Adinka and it just seemed right since I already have one. After calling up my ex boyfriends father who is professor in African art and asking for his advice I have narrowed it down to these:

Sankofa

meaning: return and get

symbol of learning from the past.

Nyame Dua

meaning: God's presence and protection

Akoben

meaning: vigilance and wariness.

I think I'm leaning towards the first one but the others hold alot to them to . I got until next month to make the decision of which 1 and the location..soooooooooooo wish me luck!