My name is Joanna and I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 22. Other than having diabetes I am also an athlete, student, girlfriend, swimcoach, receptionist, boardmember, avid baker, and the list goes on... Interested to learn more? - then read my blog why dont you ;)
My whole life I have been scared of becoming too sad, cause when you do can you pick yourself up? It's always seemed easier to me to keep it together all the time instead of ever letter my guard down. Yes I do get sad sometimes but never for long, it's always seemed too important for me to "stay strong". However, it's occurred to me that staying strong might mean sometimes letting my guard down and allowing myself more than a few moments of sadness. I am talking about this because, it occurred to me after my first diabetes counseling that I never cried over it.. I didn't even really deal with my brothers sickness until years afterwards, when he was safe and it seemed "safe" to process. I seem to just buckle down and stick with it, but doesn't that mean you miss out dealing with some important stuff that's better to deal with right away? Because when this "stuff" catches up with me it might hit harder and effect my life even more. I am sure later on in life I'll look back at this time with a smile on my lips, because then I'll be more confident in myself, knowing maybe a little more what I want to do. I used to always know what I want to do, but back when I was a teenager it wasn't as big of a deal it seemed like. Society makes us (us 20 something year olds) think that the decisions we make during these years will determine if your successful or not later in life, and it also makes us think that success can only come in the form of loads of money and a fancy title. But if that's true then there wouldn't be second chances we would only be given one chance, and the meaning of success would be superficial, I don't think that's true! Going after something you want seems more important to me, I just have to grow the guts to feel confident that what I want is actually what I want, like I used to be able too. So many things have come in between and sort of confused me I think, but so are many of us 20 something's - confused!
Talking about confusion, when I came home on my bike last night I took my gloves off to lock my bike and put them on the back of the bike like I always do. This morning I couldn't find the gloves, I'm thinking where could they be, then I look out my window and see them still laying on the bike haha I took a pic of it;
Haha confusion is very much to the word of the week for me ha
Let's hope clarity is the word for next week! Enough deep thoughts out of me, let me know if you all get to sick reading about this, or if I don't make sense or contradict myself cause sometimes I feel like I do :/
In November 2012 I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, in the middle of my last season as an elite swimmer at Cleveland State University, USA. This is my story of how I try to come to terms with that my survival will depend mainly on maintaining a good regime with taking insulin and blood glucose tests for the rest of my life. Since putting the competitive swimming career aside for a more "normal" lifestyle I have picked up triathlon and last year I completed my first Iron Man. My current goal is to become a better runner!
