It dawned on me last week, as all the kids went back to school and classes started up at the local colleges, that it has been four years since I graduated from college.

It just doesn’t seem possible that it’s been that long. It seems like only yesterday that I was walking across the stage to accept the empty folder that would soon hold the diploma that I had spent four years working to obtain.

So much has happened in those four years.  I moved into my first apartment by myself, and started working in the real world.  I worked as a freelance web designer and developer for a while, working out of my home office, my car, and my favorite locally owned coffee shop.  And at one point, my freelance work and a couple of part time jobs were what got the bills paid.  Nothing wrong with that, but it wasn’t exactly how I imagined life would be after graduation.  

When the opportunity came to start working full time at my current job, and have insurance, benefits, etc… I was absolutely ecstatic.  My lack of insurance was the main reason that I had tried to avoid going to any doctor at all; like so many people, I simply couldn’t afford the expense.  And for what ever reason, I still tried to avoid the doctor once I had insurance, too.

Fast forward to the end of my first year with insurance, when it was time to select which plan I was going to take for the next year.  There were two options, the cheaper plan or the expensive plan. When it was time to sign the papers, I chose the cheaper plan.

Well, I was sitting in my office later that evening, and started second guessing my decision to go with the cheap plan.  Something told me that I really needed to take the other plan.  So, I contacted the HR department, and had the change made.

With in a few months of that, I ended up at the doctor’s office, beginning my road to the biggest thing that had happened since graduation: being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and congestive heart failure.  I then knew why I was driven to change my decision about my insurance plan. Now, twenty months, two hospital stays, and dozens of tests and procedures later, I’m so glad I went with the expensive plan.

Twenty months. Boy, it sure seems like I’ve been living with type 2 diabetes and congestive heart failure for so much longer than that.  In hindsight, I know I really have been living with it for a lot longer than that, I just didn’t know about it.

I’ve come a long way since I was diagnosed, and yet, I still have a long way to go.  I only hope that the next four years will slow down a bit, so I can relax, live my life, and enjoy the show.