Everyone Else

I don't want to be like everyone else.

This in response to a comment on an email list I'm on - are type 1 diabetic folks like everyone else? The point was that people with type 1 are NOT like everyone else - they may have kidney disease, poor eyesight, mental difficulties from blood sugar excursions.

I think that this is an important response to the "people with diseases and disabilities are just like all of the normal people" argument. Of course I'm a normal person. I parent my child, I go to work, I make food, I eat food, I agonize over personal relationships, I attempt to balance my accounts and still have some treats in my life.

Yes, I will likely run into diabetes-related complications that make my life more complex. I do now. When I have to sit down on the floor of the library with my daughter and read books because I'll fall over if I stand up, that's a complication of diabetes right there. And when she yells at me to get up because she doesn't want to sit there - and I explain that we have to wait - and everyone looks at me like I'm a nut - that's a complication right there too. And when I need to say that we can't go for an unplanned walk right after breakfast because she said that she didn't want to and I've already taken my insulin - that's another complication.

But I digress entirely. Ranty rant rant.

What I meant to say was that having diabetes has made me recognize that complications ARE normal. Most people I know have complications. One had breast cancer, another has MS. Another is a caregiver for a spouse, another has a spouse who's left the family struggling. All of these things make our lives more challenging and more complex.

Complications are a huge part of most peoples' lives. Sure, some of us might live charmed lives. But as we grow older, our health and our family situation and our lives in general tend to create situations that can be mentally and physically painful.

So despite the fact that I don't want to be a normal person, I am. Complexity is normal, and type 1 diabetes is just one part of the complexity is my life. I accept that, as I accept that others have their own complications - and I hope that they support me through mine as I try to support them through theirs.