Every year this month comes around and hits me in the face. All at once, I realize what month it is. Most people recognize October as Breast Cancer Awareness month or February as Black History month or March as Women’s History month. But most people don’t know that November affects over 29 million people in the United States, about 9.3% of the population,according to the Center for Disease Control. The reason? Diabetes. Type 1, Type 2, all the types!

November is National Diabetes Awareness month.

What that means is, diabetes becomes a big deal to people involved with the world of diabetes. But here’s the catch, everyone is involved. Some people just don’t realize it.

There is probably someone sitting in one of your classes with an insulin pump attached to them, or a glucometer in their purse. One of your professors might have diabetes, or maybe even a family member. Diabetes is everywhere and this month has been designed to raise more awareness about the disease.

This month means so much to me because it affects my family and it directly affects me. I was diagnosed at the age of four with Type 1 Diabetes and strive everyday to bring awareness to the people around me.

November is a month that no one truly knows about. To most people, it’s Thanksgiving and the beginning of Christmas shopping. But to me, I am thinking less and less about turkey and football, and more about how I can educate my friends, family, coworkers, and the general public about my disease.

With other diseases, it’s easy. You can show someone a picture of a person in a hospital bed, with almost no hair, and people know that that person is terminally ill with some form of cancer. But diabetes is different, it is a challenge within itself.

Diabetes is invisible. Diabetes does not show itself on someone’s face or someone’s scalp, there are no pictures of us sitting in wheelchairs or being hooked up to machines with tubes coming out of us.

Pictures of people with diabetes show normal people. People smiling. People laughing. People eating. People doing people things. There is no difference between what I look like and what you look like. The difference is that I am living with a life-threatening disease and I have to stare it in the face everyday and say, “no, not today”. Every. Single. Day. That’s the difference.

So now imagine bringing awareness to this disease. My goal this month is to post a photo a day to educate people about diabetes and all the aspects of it: mental, emotional, and physical. I want people to know what I am dealing with, I want people to know what 9.3% of our population is dealing with.

But most importantly, I want people with diabetes to not have to explain to every stranger that comes into their life what is going on. I want people to understand when I say my blood sugars have been crazy all day. Or when I say, I had a bad low last night. I want understanding.

November is diabetes.

November is awareness.

November is bringing visibility to a very invisible disease.