Sometimes things happen that we don’t plan for. It’s inevitable that (no matter who you are) at one point or another, there will be unpredictable turns of events – good or bad – that can make you reshape your perspectives or values. You might face moments that take up time in your day, space in your heart, and dwindle your sanity to the point you’re replaying it over and over in your head. Trying to make sense of where things went wrong or how they could’ve been prevented. How, maybe, if you had done something different, things would be different…

It was about a month before my 12^th birthday that I sat in the doctors office, freezing cold when she said, “It looks like type 1 diabetes,” frozen basically. After a week of what seemed like a vicious stomach virus, I was finding out that I am the first (and only) of my family to be diabetic, and my life would be different from now on. I felt completely alone, like nobody could understand something I hardly understood. As if the world as I knew it was over and I had no choice but to accept the new one I was thrown into.

If I could go back and tell myself anything, it would be this: nothing that happens to you today can stop the good days from happening again. Although there is never a day I’m not diabetic, I’ve still had some pretty amazing days. And over a lot of time, and with a lot of help I’ve learned things that although they seem obvious, seem to slip our minds in the chaos of our everyday lives.

1: We might never have control over everything that happens to us, but the beauty in that, is that nobody is immune to his or her fate. There are a lot of times we might ask, why me? Why now? Why today, of all days? Well… why not? I have never met a person who has gone through something difficult that didn’t force them to learn something, make a change, or feel something. Challenges are what drive us to learn; if we’re not challenged, then we’re not forced to think of new ways to solve problems. Nobody wants to go through difficult things; if I had a choice, everything would go the way I plan in my head. But these unexpected changes and challenges are what prepare you for your future.

11 (Not eleven, just so important that it’s number 1, twice): No matter what is happening right now: if you love it, hate it, wish things would be different… You will never wake up being anyone else. Everyday that you get up, you will be [insert your first/last name] until the day you die. And you should love that. Because nobody else can wake up and do that. You should also know that nothing bad can last forever. You’ve gotten through everything up until this point, even the times you felt your world was ending, and you will continue to get through even better than ever – because if you’re here now, that means you can.

We can’t control everything that happens to us, but that’s perfectly okay, because nobody can. However, we can control how we take our hardships in and either let them break us down, or give purpose to our struggles and meaning to our successes.

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