Last Friday, after undergoing months of doctor’s visits and countless anticipation, I received a call from my doctor that confirmed his suspicions of all my health problems: celiac disease.

Within the first few months of my fall semester, I couldn’t figure out why I had started to feel so poorly physically. I would go through bursts of absolute fatigue where I felt like I couldn’t do anything, experience large amounts of stomach pain after certain meals, and overall felt completely run-down. Through alarming blood work, it was clear that something was going on, and after several months of continuous tests and biopsies, we finally had an answer.

At first, I was alarmed when I got the call that my blood work came back for celiac disease. Even though I know it’s not a terminal or altogether completely serious disease, I still felt defeated. Instantly, I felt like my life was going to change.

It may sound extreme, maybe even a tad bit dramatic, but the truth is when you’ve spent most of your life thinking that you’re healthy and everything is OK, getting a call that you have an illness can be a bit jarring. Not because you think that your life is over, but because you know that everything is going to change in an instant.

The truth is, celiac disease is completely manageable, especially given all the health trends in today’s culture. A bit of background for those who may not be familiar: celiac disease is an autoimmune disease where the body reacts negatively to gluten. Essentially, when someone with the disease consumes gluten, the body begins attacking itself, thus resulting in low white blood cell counts and a vast amount of fatigue.

Fortunately, the solution right now is simple. Most doctors put their patients on a strict gluten-free diet to suppress the symptoms. However, there is no cure and patients need to be very careful about following this diet as the disease does influence the body’s autoimmune system.

Now that you have a better idea of what celiac disease is, it’s time for me to try my best to bestow some wisdom on those who might be going through something similar.

Whether I was ready to accept this diagnosis or not, I had to come to terms with it. The truth is, we become so accustomed to living our lives in the same way every single day that the smallest change impacts us in the largest way. We can’t possibly imagine our lives any differently, and it’s scary to try to fathom making changes even if they will benefit us.

Yet, at the end of the day, we have two options: accept the setback and understand that life is not over and that in the end, we will probably be better for it, or completely shut down and let this disease- or whatever it may be- conquer our lives.

I chose the former, not necessarily because it was the easiest option, but because choosing the latter was a choice I knew I was not going to be happy making.

I’m not going to be the first person to tell you through this article that “sh*t happens,” because yeah, it does. Sometimes, you are going to get news that you aren’t prepared for and that you struggle to accept, but there’s no point in wasting time sulking in the confusion and sadness.

I spent several days giving myself permission to feel the pain, anger, frustration, sadness, but after that amount of time, it was time to accept things and move on. You can’t always control what happens to you, but you can control how you respond to it, and that’s exactly what I’m going to continue to do.