I’m So Proud of How Far You’ve Come

Content warning: This post briefly mentions struggling with food and diets in the context of health issues.

If you asked me what the hardest year of my life so far was, I’d immediately give you the answer of 2012. I think all of us have an example to give of a benchmark moment (or several) in our life where we were struggling beyond anything else we’d ever experienced, and 2012 was that for me. I was sixteen, and experiencing more health challenges than ever. I was itching and felt like my skin was burning from the inside out, but we couldn’t figure out why. My jaw was causing me intense pain and so I got braces, which ended up causing more pain every time they adjusted or fiddled with my mouth. Food was touch and go, due to the jaw pain and the itching — and I’d go on and off elimination-type diets more times than I could count. Sugar was a no-no, due to the fact that we were trying to add in or cut out anything and everything we could think of at that point. I was miserable. Add to it that I lost two important friendships in close proximity to each other, and my anxiety and depression were the worst they’d ever been in my life. I couldn’t sleep, and my schedule was flipped so I’d wake up at 5pm and go to sleep at 7am, missing my family sometimes entirely. It was awful.

I kept a blog during that time, another blog dedicated to helping those with chronic health issues. It was my way of reaching out in the darkness, trying to find someone or something to help me feel less alone. And it helped. I recently revisited that blog to try to see if there was any material that could be revamped or reposted here, but what I found was actually kind of shocking. I had no idea how much I’d actually poured my heart out into the blog posts. And while I knew I was struggling during that year, I had forgotten how much. One sentence in particular stood out to me: “I’m hoping that someday, somehow, all of this will get better.”

Back then, while writing that, I truly had no idea that anything could be better than that current moment. I was so hopeless and beyond believing that anything could improve. I wish I could reach back into that moment and give myself a hug. I wish I could tell her this: that ten years later, I’m doing much better. I no longer itch — except when I eat corn; turns out it was an allergic reaction that whole time. My jaw pain comes and goes. I can eat a lot more than I used to, even though it’s still not 100%. I have a new potential diagnosis that explains 99% of my problems, and I have medical professionals who are actually interested in helping me now. I won’t pretend that everything is great, but it’s better than it used to be. I have climbed so many mountains and conquered so many challenges.

Until I opened this blog, I genuinely didn’t realize to the full extent how much things had improved for me from the age of sixteen to twenty-six. It’s a normal human reaction — I think sometimes we forget just how far we’ve come. I think we get so caught up in the here and now that we forget to give ourselves credit for what we’ve already done, where we’ve already been. Or, when we do focus on the past, we focus on the painful parts. At least I do. We forget to acknowledge that, yes, the painful parts happened — but at least we’re not still there.

Sometimes we forget just how far we’ve come. We get so caught up in the here and now that we forget to give ourselves credit for what we’ve already done, where we’ve already been. Or, when we do focus on the past, we focus on the painful parts. We forget to acknowledge that, yes, the painful parts happened — but at least we’re not still there.

Today, I encourage you to look back on where you’ve come, where you’ve been, and where you are now. Be proud of yourself for the challenges you’ve endured and the mountains you’ve climbed. No accomplishment is too small. You’re doing it, the hard things, every single day, and you’ve come so far. I’m so proud of you. I hope you’re proud of yourselves, too.

Hey, thanks for reading! If this post resonated with you, tell a friend!

This post is a part of my series where I explore the meaning behind each sticker in my sticker collection. You can purchase this sticker for you or a friend as a reminder of just how far you’ve come — just click the link below. In honor of this post, I’ll be putting the sticker on sale for the rest of June. 🌿