... easier doesn't always equate to better.

Last night Samantha had one of the worst low blood sugars she had in the past 6 years of her life with diabetes. After the shaking and nausea subsided and she was able to see and talk again, she looked up at me, all curled up on the couch with her tear streaked face, and said in the most grown up of ways, "Wow, that low was tough."

I told her how sorry I was and that I wished she didn't have to go through this and I was all ready to feel sorry for the both of us and she said, "No mom, that's okay I am glad I have diabetes." This shocked me! I said, "what do you mean you're glad?" She explained it to me and said that yeah, life would be easier without it, but easier doesn't always equate to better. It is like the Frost poem (that she learned about his year in class--thank you Mrs. Wyman) , The Road not Taken, in which those things that require more work and more challenge often end up with the sweeter reward.

She works harder than most of her non-diabetic peers at achieving (not necessarily in class, or in sports, but in life). Sometimes she exceeds everyone's expectations and other times she falls short, but because of the sheer effort and backbone required to make it through each day with a positive outlook, she is more ready for the challenges that she will ultimately face in life. Basically, she knows that she would love to live a carefree day without D. But, she also knows that living with it for as long as she has has changed her for the better. She didn't choose to take the road less traveled, that choice was made for her. But she has chosen how she views her journey down that road and I could not be prouder.

The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.