Eating a healthy diet is the best thing you could do for your body. I believe that food is fuel and that what you put in your body correlates to how you function. I am very passionate about my health and am conscious of the food choices I make on a daily basis. Correspondingly, I knew that majoring in nutrition and food science in college would be an excellent way to expand my knowledge on the subject. I attend Grand Valley State University as a sophomore and hope to eventually achieve a master's degree and become a registered dietitian. I personally think that obtaining healthy eating habits is essential because it improves physical performance, can help sustain good health even through adverse medical conditions, and increases the quality of mental health. In junior high and high school, I competed in cross country and track on the varsity level. Like most young athletes, my idea of “eating healthy” was misconstrued. I thought I had to eat less to become better at my sport and what I did eat was never nutrient-dense enough. When my performance was declining, I realized my issue and sought to get better at taking care of myself. I learned that less is not necessarily more and started to make myself bigger, more balanced meals. Once making these changes, my body felt a lot stronger and energized and I felt like I could always bring my all to practices and races. Unfortunately, in my sophomore year of high school, I was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes. I had to become extremely aware of what I ate in order to counter it with insulin and had to pay attention to how different foods affected my blood sugar. By eating healthy, I was able to have better control over my chronic illness. My endocrinologist often praises me for this and always emphasizes how having a good diet affects everything in your body. Mentally, I feel a lot better about myself when eating healthy. I do not feel guilty when eating well and I often feel satisfied that I am giving my body the nutrients it needs. This fact alone has had a positive impact on my mental health. Although, a few years ago I fell into a brief slump. I started to eat lots of junk food and did not have any sort of regular eating pattern. This caused me to feel not only physically, but mentally terrible and caused me to have extremely low self-esteem. Thankfully, this experience inspired me to work really hard to get out of it. I worked on creating a routine for myself and made sure that my meals made me feel good. Once getting out of this slump, I felt a lot happier and more confident than ever before. After my first year at college, having healthy eating habits was quite difficult. While living on campus I was surrounded by fast food, highly processed snacks, and dining halls. It was admittedly hard not to succumb to this lifestyle. I tried my best to choose better options at the cafeteria or get my own groceries. I realized it is very hard for all college students to focus on good eating habits, especially with the stress of studying and being in a new environment. I think that practicing good healthy eating habits should be more common and talked about in order to benefit young adults such as myself. By doing so we can better avoid/control health complications, educate on the importance of nutrition, and be able to pass good habits onto future generations.

I was diagnosed with my chronic illness very suddenly. After feeling off for a few weeks, my doctor requested that I get some labs done. Little did I know that later that day I would be immediately admitted into the hospital. I was 15 years old in my sophomore year of high school, It’s been four years since. As if high school was not already a challenge in itself, being told that I had a chronic disease felt so surreal and debilitating. It was especially difficult at first, but I know now that time heals. After about six months, living with it came second nature to me, and I never had to think twice when doing my usual routine. Although being diagnosed with a chronic illness is inconvenient to say the least, it has impacted my life for the better, inspires me to achieve every goal I set for myself, and gives me the power to inspire others too. I was in the beginning of my second high school cross country season; my fifth year running cross-country. Cross-country and track became a big part of my life once I found it when I was only eleven years old. Sports was not something I would give up due to my unfortunate diagnosis. I wanted to continue to excel in my sport, not just for myself, but to also show others that I should not be underestimated and that I still was the same determined person I always have been. I felt self-conscious during my first season back because everyone seemed to be talking about my diagnosis, looking at the medical equipment visible on my body, and wondering how it would affect my performance. As time went on though, I stopped caring about what others around me thought and I accepted myself and my situation for the way it was. I focused on my goals and worked harder than ever before. The next few years of high school I continued to be on varsity for both cross-country and track, competed in state, made personal records, and became team captain. My diagnosis has shaped me into the person I am today through all its hardships and triumphs. It strengthened the bond I have between friends and family. One friend that I have in particular also has a chronic illness and I became close to her during my sophomore year of high school, around the time of my own diagnosis. We’ve been best friends ever since that year. We were both teammates as well which made it all the better because we were able to empower each other and push each other every single day. Now in college, we both face new struggles but have continued to have each other’s back. I feel lucky to have been able to inspire and have had an impact on the relationships around me. I am currently heading into my sophomore of college majoring in nutrition and food science to eventually become a registered dietitian. My chronic illness helped me make this decision as I learned about the importance of health and how much food can impact so many aspects of your life. I would like to help those who have diseases or complications manage their diets and lead them to live healthier lives. In doing so, I hope to improve the livelihood of those that I meet and work with people who have the same chronic illness as I do. I would like to educate others more on it and emphasize that having a chronic illness should not limit the way you live your life.

I am Sammie, I am soon to be 19 years old and I currently live in a small Chicago suburb with my family. I am going on to my second year of college at Grand Valley State University studying nutrition aiming to become a registered dietitian. I really enjoyed my first year of college and am excited to learn more in-depth about nutrition in the years to come. I didn’t always know that this was the career path I’d choose though. I didn’t figure out what I wanted to do until the end of my junior year of high school. But, I am so glad to now be on this journey. I became really conscious of the food I ate and tried to make the healthiest choices I could starting when I was in fifth grade. Back then, all I looked forward to was joining the cross country and track team at the junior high school. I never was good at any other sports, sometimes the last pick in gym class, and I always felt left out not having a team. I found a love for running and it truly inspired me to start living a healthier lifestyle and to bring my absolute best to my future team. I didn’t know much about nutrition then, but as the years went on I learned more and more and how diet has so much impact on performance. I participated in these sports all the way through high school at the varsity level. I continued to learn about healthy-eating through health classes, books, and online research. If it wasn’t for a good diet, I know I wouldn’t have been capable to achieve all the things I wanted to. In my sophomore year of high school I got diagnosed with Type-1 diabetes. T1D is a chronic autoimmune disorder in which the pancreas produces little to no insulin. After this diagnosis, it felt like my whole world flipped upside down. I had to pay more attention than ever to what I ate to avoid spikes in blood sugar. Everything I put into my body had to be accounted for through insulin injection. I learned to do this from a registered dietitian at the hospital who showed me how to convert carbohydrates into units of insulin and educated me on foods to watch out for and foods with low glycemic indexes. In order to have good control of your diabetes, I found that eating healthy is the best option. Of course, I still had to change my diet drastically because it was more difficult to manage around my very active lifestyle and a lot of the usual things I ate just weren’t compatible anymore. Even though this was a challenging diagnosis, I believe that my healthy diet played a huge role in my continued success in taking care of myself and still going on to have great athletic seasons. When thinking about what I wanted to do with my life my junior year, I thought back to all of these experiences and realized how important nutrition is to me. I never really noticed it in the moment since it became second nature but I am glad to have realized this passion. Over the past few years, I have been able to learn more about this field and even interview multiple dietitians for research assignments which was such a great experience. I want to become a registered dietitian focusing on diabetics so I can continue to learn and give my knowledge to others in the community. My passion for health and nutrition continues to change my life.

I love my ability to make my friends laugh. It sounds a little cliché, but it’s true. But I think it’s really good to have a quality about yourself that you love, that others love about you too. A quality about yourself, that actually affects the people around you. With any conversation I have with my friends, I always like to lighten the mood with a joke or a funny story. Seeing other people smile and knowing you’re the reason for that smile, makes me happy beyond belief. Having this trait about myself helps me remember to not take life too seriously. You really never know what other people are going through which is why I always try to make other people laugh. Maybe what I said made their day. Maybe they went home and told their family what I said. Maybe it made their day just a little bit better. And that’s okay with me. In times like these, I think everyone could use a good laugh once in a while. Seeing other people happy makes me happy, and at the end of the day, that’s all I want.

In elementary school, I was a bit of an outcast. Looking back, the problems I had then were small, but at the time they seemed like the biggest problems in the world. One of my biggest problems was gym class. I absolutely hated gym class, the class that everyone loved and the class that did not require any academics. Yet, it was my least favorite part of the day. I didn’t like it because I was a very uncoordinated and unathletic person. I often found myself being last pick and never was passed the ball. During gym class, I always felt left out. As a human being, I so badly wanted to be accepted and included by my peers. Around 4th and 5th grade, I was on the search to find a sport I was good at. I joined sports from volleyball to dance, but I couldn’t find one I was good at or enjoyed. I remember sometimes I would pray at night and ask to find a sport that I was good at (yes, I was that desperate). Someone who I looked up to at the time was my babysitter, Megan. She was about 15 when she babysat me. I looked up to Megan because naturally, as a kid, you think all high-schoolers are cool. She treated me as a friend which I remember appreciating very much. She told me that she was on the cross country and track team. I remember asking, “What? Running is a sport?”. I am so thankful that running is a sport. I joined the cross country team at my junior high which truly changed my life. I loved every second of practice. Sometimes I didn’t want to leave at all and I would wait a little longer to text my parents to come pick me up. For the first time ever, I had a family that wasn’t actually related to me. I would look forward to going to practice to see my best friends who made me feel included and welcome. A lot of those friends are still my friends to this day. I went to state all 3 years of junior high for cross country and track, became an all-stater, and won the state championships in the 4x4 relay. I continued to run through high school and I’m currently participating in my last high school track season. I honestly don’t know what my life would have looked like if I hadn’t known Megan and if I never found a sport that was for me. I truly believe that running has shaped my life in the best way possible. The sport has shown me friendships and hardships. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without it. I still look up to Megan to this day, she currently is a senior in college working to achieve her goal of becoming a teacher. She has always been a positive person in my life and I strive to be at least a little like her every day. As this chapter of my life is coming to an end soon, I’m starting a new chapter; college! I’m so excited for what the future holds and I plan on majoring in nutrition and dietetics to become a registered dietitian. I am passionate about health, especially after being diagnosed with type-1 diabetes a couple of years ago, and I want to do my best to help others. I babysit two little girls now and I hope to have an effect on them like how Megan had on me because you never know how you could change someone’s life.

My name is Samantha, most people call me Sammie, I am 17 years old and I live in the Chicago suburbs. In the first 15 years of my life, I never experienced any medical issues or problems. Never even broken a bone. The things that mostly vexed me were school and sports. I have been on varsity cross country and track since the sixth grade. I have gone down to state many times, became an all-stater once, and my 4x4 relay team came in first in the state when I was 13. I have always been determined and like to work hard through my challenges which eventually did really come in to play on June 6th, 2019, about a month before my 16th birthday. On that day I was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes and that was probably one of the worst days of my life. I have never been so confused and mad and scared all at the same time before. I did not even really know what diabetes was at the time. I stayed in the hospital for three long days. When I got to go home, I just hoped that the disease would just stay at the hospital and not come back with me. It’s been almost 3 years now that I’ve had it. Sometimes it’s hard thinking about how I will never not have type-1 diabetes and I will have it for the rest of my life. But life does not always work out the way you want it to and you just have to push on. A couple of days after being released from the hospital, I returned to my school’s summer running camp. I decided that having a chronic illness should not stop me from doing what I am passionate about. Since then I have gone to state for high school cross country twice and I am currently in my senior track season. It is not easy participating in sports and training while having diabetes, especially because of the highs and lows of my blood sugar, but each day I have gotten better and I believe that having this disease has made me more determined than ever to keep pushing forward. Having type-1 diabetes has definitely made me stronger and more resilient. It has also taught me to put myself first and to look after my own health. I do always have the support of my family, but dealing with this disease has made me a lot more independent in making daily decisions in favor of my health and in other everyday tasks. In 4 months I will graduate high school and I want to attend college this coming fall. I’m going to major in nutrition and dietetics because my goal is to become a registered dietitian and work in a hospital setting where I can help people with diabetes and other illnesses. Hopefully one day I can create my own business of giving personal meal plans to anyone who needs it. Type-1 diabetes really helped me realize my passion for health and I would love to eventually help those who have a similar story to me. My struggle created a drive in me and helped me find a career path that I am excited about.