The past twenty-two years have been nothing but a learning experience. I believe the next twenty-two years will feel the same. Diabetes is a great disease to have, this may sound odd but if I had the choice of any terminal disease I would pick diabetes every single time. What other disease puts the person affected in control of his or her disease. We all know of my past and how I didn’t take care of myself, I was immature and angry at my disease. I always looked at what it didn’t allow me to do, it didn’t allow me to go in to the Navy like I dreamed, I couldn’t go anywhere without a bag of diabetes supplies and I didn’t have the freedom that a lot of people did. I have gotten past all of the negatives; I’ve gotten past all of the people doubting me. If it wasn’t for people telling me all of the things I couldn’t do I’d have no motivation at all. It all started with one doctor telling me that I shouldn’t be alive, that reignited the fire in my heart that had been out for years. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about what was said to my wife and me in that hospital room. I think about what was said and it pushes me at work, on the bike, and as a husband. For a good year or so I had a lot of anger towards this doctor but what he did by yelling at me saved my life. A part of me has forgiven the doctor for his awful bedside manner but the other part still has that anger, I have made a promise to myself that when I win my first bike race or complete a single day race over one hundred and fifty miles that I will walk in to his office with the trophy or medal and say “I didn’t know dead people could win bike races!!” When that happens I can’t wait to write about how I had to get escorted out of a hospital by security. The last sentence probably won’t happen but it’d be really cool!!
I know where I’m right now as a person and as a diabetic. How do I go from where I’m to where I want to be? Well to steal a line from a Sting song “These dreams are tied to a horse that will never tire” To do anything you have to have a dream and you have to be willing to work for it. I dream of getting diabetes out to the masses, I want diabetes to be cool. I don’t want an eight year old child with diabetes to be ashamed of the disease. How do we make diabetes cool? Well it has to be connected to something that everyone watches or knows about. Somehow someway diabetes will be connected with a major sport like baseball, hockey, basketball or football. You will see a commercial for diabetes while watching a game or while watching American Idol. I have an amazing team that helps me and somehow someway we will make this happen. I have heard the doubts from people I have brought ideas to; it sounds a lot like the people who doubted that I could race a bike or get my A1C to 6. I didn’t listen to those people before and I don’t plan on doing so now.
Today I did a lot of reflecting and a lot of crying, the tears were tears of joy. I have had one heck of a ride the past twenty-two years and I don’t think that will change anytime soon. I don’t know why I have this disease but I’m damn happy that I do. I can’t thank everyone who has been helping me the past twenty-two years, everyone has been so supportive, I’m truly blessed and I don’t know what I would do without you. THANK YOU!!!
“To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special.” Jim Valvano
I know where I’m right now as a person and as a diabetic. How do I go from where I’m to where I want to be? Well to steal a line from a Sting song “These dreams are tied to a horse that will never tire” To do anything you have to have a dream and you have to be willing to work for it. I dream of getting diabetes out to the masses, I want diabetes to be cool. I don’t want an eight year old child with diabetes to be ashamed of the disease. How do we make diabetes cool? Well it has to be connected to something that everyone watches or knows about. Somehow someway diabetes will be connected with a major sport like baseball, hockey, basketball or football. You will see a commercial for diabetes while watching a game or while watching American Idol. I have an amazing team that helps me and somehow someway we will make this happen. I have heard the doubts from people I have brought ideas to; it sounds a lot like the people who doubted that I could race a bike or get my A1C to 6. I didn’t listen to those people before and I don’t plan on doing so now.
Today I did a lot of reflecting and a lot of crying, the tears were tears of joy. I have had one heck of a ride the past twenty-two years and I don’t think that will change anytime soon. I don’t know why I have this disease but I’m damn happy that I do. I can’t thank everyone who has been helping me the past twenty-two years, everyone has been so supportive, I’m truly blessed and I don’t know what I would do without you. THANK YOU!!!
“To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special.” Jim Valvano
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