This week, one of my best friends graduates from college. She and I were in 1st grade together, at the gifted & talented school I mentioned in one of my very first posts. In chatting about her impending walk in a black gown, she mentioned that it feels kind of “meh” to her to finish up. It’s not that she’s not proud of the accomplishment – she is – she’s just ready to be done I think. But, I agreed that I felt about the same way when I graduated. Proud, but “whatever” were my sentiments.
Please don’t misunderstand what I’m about to say; I get that there are students out there who do not have the opportunity to go to college, be it special education needs, learning disabilities, finances, family obligations, etc. etc. But, for my friend and I, having gone to a GT school due to some test that identified us as “special” back in kindergarten, the challenges of college had to do with patience, working on group projects, finding time to work another job so we could pay the bills, etc. Learning has always come very easy for us both, and we are both grateful for this gift.
This friend has recently hit some amazing milestones with her own weight loss efforts, losing 65 lbs! I was telling her that when I lose all the weight I intend to, THAT will be the biggest accomplishment I have ever achieved, and she agreed for herself. To lose weight does not come naturally to either us. What has felt natural to me are things like salt shakers, french fries, pulling into a fast food restaurant at the first inkling of hunger, and coming up with excuses to not exercise at the snap of my fingers. Losing this weight requires undoing YEARS of bad habits, and fighting my tendencies the rest of my life to keep it off! I have to put up with my God-given genetics of pudginess, chubby cheeks, big calves (at any weight!), pear shape, stretch marks and on and on and on.
I don’t mean to diminish the hard work it takes for anyone to graduate – it is certainly hard. But college was instilled as an expectation in me (both from my parents and myself). Imagine what my life would had been like if the same instillation had been made for healthy choices.
I just had a brainstorm- I never had to develop any self-discipline in the academic realm until I went to college. Not because I am so incredible above-average (lol) but mostly because our high school was really easy. And I am still learning how to have self-discipline as related to food/eating and keeping my house clean. Are these two things related? I dunno, but I can definitely relate to being a work in progress as far as self-discipline is concerned.