I need your input.

I have been contacted by Health Central's Diabeteens to write a blog for their site. I responded to the email asking for more details, and I am seriously considering accepting the opportunity. The biggest problem is I don't know what I would do with this blog. I would probably maintain this site with more personal diabetes and general life related things. Which would allow the Diabeteens blog to be more about general issues that arise as a teen with Type 1 Diabetes kind of thing. Really I'm concerned that I won't be able to provide enough content for both. I love this blog and the community support that I have here, but this website is a wonderful opportunity. Also I'm not really sure if I'm cut out for the whole writing on a real live people actually see this kind of website. I don't know! So D-OCers, I trust that you will provide some sort of incredible wisdom on this topic.


For more about Health Central check out this article.

Weekend Recap.

First, thank you for all the happy birthday wishes!

I had a wonderful time celebrating with my friends Friday evening. When my friend, Kelly, suggested celebrating a few weeks ago, I wasn't really up for it. But somewhere between the waitress who told me that seventeen is a great year and passing my birthday ice cream around the table, my mindset changed. It's no longer the fact that these things might be occurring for the last time. It's enjoying the moments and hoping that the memories will last forever. For once I feel as though things are just getting started instead of coming to a close. I can see my options now and I'm ready to start working towards a more positive future. I can only hope that the waitress was right and that seventeen will be a very good year.

(From my birthday dinner, I'm second from the right.)


Saturday, I celebrated with my best friend (again) for her big birthday dinner. I was able to see a lot of old friends, an added bonus to an already great evening.

Sunday came and passed with no mention of my anniversary. I thought about the fact that twelve years had passed for about three seconds then went on with my day. I just really prefer to silently acknowledge it and move on.

Today is my mom's birthday. Happy birthday, Mom! I know you're reading this, don't worry I won't share your age with the entire internet. I love you!

Double Dose

Growing up seems to be this weeks theme...


Today is my seventeenth birthday.

Sunday is my twelfth D-anniversary.

I was five years old when I was diagnosed with Diabetes. At that age words like forever don’t exactly factor into the equation. It was more about that day or that week, and the future was a cloudy picture that didn’t mean much. When I was younger I never thought about the fact that I would get to my seventeenth birthday with Diabetes in tow. It’s not as though I thought I wouldn’t have Diabetes by seventeen, it’s just that the idea never really crossed my mind. But in the past few years as that cloudy future seemed to be inching closer, Diabetes became a part of that bigger picture too. I started to ponder what Diabetes would mean in my relationships, a career, and just everyday life. All of this is a part of growing up. My future isn’t set in stone, but now I can clearly see that Diabetes will play a role. Birthdays and anniversaries are life’s mile markers, and it’s bittersweet that two of mine fall so close to each other. With each birthday I am a step further into my future and whatever that may bring, but a part of me also pauses to remember that each birthday in the future will involve this disease. Tonight I will celebrate with friends laughing, smiling, enjoying. Sunday will come as a reminder of my trying years with diabetes and as a little spark of hope that maybe, just maybe one day my birthday won’t be a reminder of my Diabetes.

P.S. As I finished writing this, the Jonas Brothers', "A Little Bit Longer" started playing on my iTunes...

P.P.S. For the record that is the only Jonas Brothers song I have on iTunes.

I just don't know, yet.

My best friend turned seventeen today. I made her seventeen cupcakes and gave her a ticket to a concert we will both attend next weekend. I drove her to school with Stevie Wonder's "Happy Birthday" blaring from the speakers. We even took silly pictures at stop lights. Before she got out of the car she thanked me and said, "I thought today would be like any other day, but thanks to you I know it won't." Moments like this have been stirring a lot of emotion lately. If it were possible to have a teenage midlife crisis, that's what I'd call this. I feel trapped. Everything seems final and scary. This might be the last birthday I celebrate with her for sometime. By this time next year she'll be off to college and who knows what I'll be doing. Thinking about plans for the future leaves me overwhelmed and anxious. I don't know that I'm ready for any of this. I know I need to stop watching the days drift by and take charge, that my future is only as bright as I make it. I'm turning seventeen on Friday. I'll celebrate, but I fear that it will be tainted by what I'm feeling. The future should not seem like a burden. I need to flip my thinking, make the most of what I have. I just wish it didn't seem as though any choice I make today or in the near future will shape my entire life. I just want to feel that not knowing right now is an okay thing.
I don't know where I'm going with this. I just needed to put it out there.

I sincerely apologize for the melodramatic teenage me, me, me-ness of this post.