Happy Lots-of-Anniversaries to Me!

Some of you guessed on my Facebook page what 2 very important personal anniversaries I had coming up today.Y'all had some great guesses! And between all of you, you eventually figured them out.

We'll start with the lighter, happier of the two. Five years ago today, I GRADUATED COLLEGE! I was the first person in my family to graduate college and I did it in 4 years, which is becoming increasingly difficult these days. I received my B.A. in Public Relations from Western Kentucky University.

"Rachel, what are those weird fuzzy things on your hands?!?!"

Well, friends, I was the University mascot, Big Red, for 3 years. And at graduation, all the Big Reds get to wear the mascot hands! As a matter of fact, at graduation, my name was announced as Rachel "Big Red" Bodine, which under any other circumstance, would be a complete insult.

Anyway, while it seems that everyone is graduating college, and even getting advanced degrees, I'm still proud of that particular accomplishment.

Ok, my next anniversary. The crappy one.

Eight years (and about 10,000 injections) ago today, my mom and I sat in my endocrinologist's office as he explained to me that I had type 1 diabetes. 

He explained everything it involved, and it was a lot. I think I handled it better than anyone would expect. After all, I was 18, and I was just diagnosed with a chronic disease that would completely change my life forever.

When the nurse was teaching me how to give myself injections, she told me to think of something happy as I pushed the needle in to my stomach.

I have a wonderfully hilarious friend with the most beautiful blonde hair you've ever seen. His name is Max, and he does the BEST Family Guy impressions.

Me and Max at a concert on campus our freshman year. We were such babies!

So, as I gave myself my first insulin injection, I pictured Max doing his Cleveland impression. And guess what? I didn't cry. 

I cried a little when my doctor diagnosed me. And I cried a little on the way home. I didn't cry the next day. And I didn't cry the day after that either! I was on a roll! I was handling it like a champ!

.....Until the next day. Me and my mom and sister went to the mall. And there, in the middle of the food court, in front of my family, other shoppers, and my chick-fil-a sandwich, I lost it. I completely lost all of my proverbial sh*t.

Maybe I hadn't processed everything that had happened. Maybe my "cool, calm and collected" tank was empty. Maybe I was saddened by the fact that insulin causes weight gain and I'd never be a size zero again. (Oh, the days of size zero....) Either way, it was not a good day.

Since then, my emotions have leveled out. I still have my days where I want to punch everything in the face, but I also have my days where I feel very hopeful about the future of T1D, and very thankful for the technology I am able to take advantage of today.

And, to avoid my PR degree going to waste, if you'd like to donate to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, or see what kind of cool stuff the Middle TN chapter is doing, just click here. :)

So anyway. That's a lot of memories for one date to hold. I'm hoping that anything else that happens on a May 10th will be fun and exciting, like graduating, and not lame and stupid, like diabetes.

As always, thanks for reading! And I promise I'll blog about my kick in the face soon.