The Power of Hard Times

Tough times never last, but tough people do.

Robert H. Schuller

    History is shaped by hard times. Without them we wouldn’t learn from our mistakes and strive to become better. I have lived a fortunate life, free from many of the struggles that others around the world have unfortunately, have been burdened with. Unfortunately, around the time that I was about to leave third grade, when I was eight I was diagnosed with diabetes. It was a sudden change for me, I was given new technology which I had to learn quickly to get my diabetes under control. I had to learn to count carbs, and I couldn’t eat whatever I wanted anymore. It was punishing at first. There were many nights after eating too much or even not enough that I would have to wake up to fix my my mistakes. Times where I would go so out of range that it hurt or my hands started shaking. It affected my academic, athletic, and social life in a major way. Eventually I started to developer better habits to help make it easier for myself and my family. I found ways to more accurately predict how many carbs I was going to eat, and how to tell how that would affect my blood sugar. This helped me understand the consequences of my actions. If I didn’t take responsibility for my health, I would feel the effects. It also taught me to restraint, and the ability to think ahead by forcing me to know when and what I was going to eat, and that I wouldn’t eat to much of the wrong things. Although some could look at diabetes as purely a step backwards in my health and an unnecessary time of hardship I like to look at it as a lesson, to take care of myself and look on the bright side of life