Once upon a time, there lived a 7-year-old girl who kept a drawing journal and had a smile that overtook her whole face. One day, this girl became very sick and had to go to the hospital. It was there that her whole life changed. She was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
The girl I’m talking about is me.
Over the years, there’s a lot of education and training that has to be conducted in order to lead a relatively normal lifestyle. You learn to check blood sugars and how to avoid spikes in your blood sugar levels and where the best place to take your insulin shots are. However, as a diabetic, there are lessons you learn about life that I've found to be necessary.
You learn that every action has a consequence. At a minor scale, you realize that when you do ‘X’, your blood sugar will react accordingly. However, it’s more than simply understanding the correlation between what we do and how our body responds. You come to the realization that life works out that way too. Diabetics are told all the time that if we don’t take care of ourselves and make our disease a priority, then the consequence can only be negative. It’s true, and so we have to remind ourselves continuously.
You learn that you have to work twice as hard as other people to be on the same footing as everyone else. A cold might take someone a couple days to get over. For a diabetic, it might take a week or two to finally come out of it. Low and high blood sugar spells happen more often than not, and when we don’t have that under control, it leads to a more difficult life in general. I will have a different perspective on hard work than others. It’s not bad, it’s just different.
You learn that not everyone will think highly of you. However, I can’t be caught up in what people think of me. If I have to check my blood sugar in the middle class, you bet my meter is coming out during that lecture. Does the sight of blood make you uncomfortable? Then don’t look. If I miss class because my blood sugar isn’t in check and you’re not my professor, it’s really none of your business about why I didn’t show up. While a diabetic doesn’t owe you an explanation, there will be many times where we will offer you one anyways.
What doctors, parents, friends, professors, or anyone who deals with a diabetic don’t realize is that it’s hard. It’s hard to compensate and when you have something weighing you down. Growing up, we all have our worries. Will I get into this college? Make a good grade in a class? Make the team? A diabetic also has to worry about their health as well. A constant set of reminders to check blood sugars, to keep eating on time, and crisis management when our immune system fails us. It’s hard to understand how anyone could care or love someone else when I feel like I take up so much of everyone’s time to be okay. I’ve learned that it’s a growing process. I will always be diabetic. I will never wake up all of sudden and find myself to be cured. That’s what a chronic disease is, something that can be managed but not cured. That’s okay, I’ve come to peace with it.
Today, there lives a 19-year-old girl who keeps a drawing journal and has a smile that overtakes her whole face. She is a type 1 diabetic.
