Dylan Friddle

I was blessed with a curse. By that, I mean that both my elder sister and my loving father were diagnosed and raised as diabetics. I grew up in a house where we would compete for the best A1C and we shared desserts to lower carbs between us.

It was never sunshine and roses though. I remember my dad going missing and the police searching for him when he had critical lows. I remember when the disease took his eyes. It was chaos but knowing I had two members who understood that what we faced, we faced together made us all survive.

I have had this cursed disease for 25 years and continue to beat it as I can. Sleepless nights, endless worry, and doubt of a cute ever rescuing me from it will not stop the fact that I am a diabetic who survives and thrives because I learned to adapt to a more difficult circumstance.

If you are reading this and want to give up because diabetes has stolen the quality of live we all deserve, know that you will be stronger than any other human because you can smile with the weight of this pain. This disease is a curse, but we can choose to beat if.

Beat it every day. Build your resolve, build your dedication to yourself. And those same aspects that control your diabetes will dominate all other factors of your life. This is a cursed blessing. But you. You are are an endless supply of courage.

Live longer than me, smile more than me, laugh in the painful times, and guide others who do not know the difficulties of life. You were given a disorder, but let it make you a leader to all who need someone to idolize.

You are worth loving. You are not a cash cow. You are a person that belongs and because of what we face, we will ensure our survival.