Graduating from college was an accomplishment that I doubted I would ever achieve. The moment I realized I finished my senior thesis, tears of pride rolled down my cheeks because I beat the odds and did what I perceived was impossible and unattainable. I wasn’t the only one that was proud though; my parents have lauded me with praise, other family members have shared their belief in me, and my close friends have been a source of encouragement and excitement.
A couple weeks ago, my roommate Rachel asked if she could host a potluck dinner party for me as a graduation celebration. I, of course said yes and last night, that dinner party came together. It was a beautiful time of friendship and food and, boy did I feel honored. Not only did Rachel honor me by throwing me a dinner party less than a week before her wedding, but she also honored me by making it a “diabetic friendly” potluck. She wanted to make sure that I felt taken care of holistically. She found a couple recipes from a diabetic website that she and her fiance Seth made and they were SO tasty. Everybody was on board and our table overflowed with delicious foods that I could eat worry-free! Instead of rice, Seth made barley risotto. We had tons of roasted root veggies instead of mashed potatoes. The cookies my friend Emily made were even low in sugar (and without Splenda which is GREAT!).
An anecdote from my friend Paul comes to mind (he has plenty of them): teach others how to treat you by how you treat yourself. Being a diabetic is something that I have honored and being a college graduate is something that I have honored as well. Last night was a perfect example of the people close to me honoring those things with me. So whatever and whoever you are and whatever you do that you are proud of, honor them! Those around you will see that and honor them as well.