20 years.

It looks like I finally made it. As of today, I have lived with type 1 diabetes for 20 years. Next year I could buy my diabetes a drink if I wanted. I really don’t; we don’t get along, but that’s not the point. If I was a more “deep” person, I’d type up a long, personal essay on how I’m using this disease as an opportunity to better myself and to motivate others, but I can’t. Trust me, I tried. 20 years seems like the kind of milestone where I’d write something like that.

I couldn’t do it because 1, I complain too much to be motivational, and 2, I really have nothing to compare this to. I was diagnosed with diabetes when I was 5 years old. You know what I was doing at 5 years old? Kindergarten. My only frame of reference to what a “normal” life is without diabetes was back when I was learning the ABCs. I couldn’t even cross the street yet.

I lived with type 1 diabetes throughout my entire childhood. Basically everything in my life was influenced by diabetes in some way or another. I mean I guess I could envision a life where I didn’t have diabetes, but there’s no point. For example, I didn’t really play sports growing up due to diabetes. Constant low blood sugars made lots of physical activity insanely difficult. Let’s say I didn’t have diabetes and played football instead. I would have never joined Boy Scouts since I joined scouts specifically because my mom wouldn’t let me play sports, and I would have never joined marching band due to the obvious time conflicts.

Well crap, there goes half my friends right there.

Maybe I could have been an awesome D1 athlete, or maybe I could have gotten crushed by some 300lb defensive lineman and would now be a living pancake. Maybe I could have gotten that pilot job that I wanted as a kid. Who knows? There’s no point in trying to envision a life without diabetes because so much could be different. There’s too many variables. Would I have gone to College? Would I have met my girlfriend? Would I be fat?

Who cares?

Here’s to 20 more years of a “normal” life with diabetes. (You know, “normal.” Like having to stab myself repeatedly every time I have to eat.) If a cure is discovered sometime soon, I’ll gladly take it. If not, I’ll just continue living my life as “normal” as possible. It’s seemed to work so far.