The Balance

Life requires a lot of effort. Young, old, student, parent: I’m sure everyone can relate. Having not experienced a life stage beyond that which my years have afforded me (duh), I am inclined to feel, being aware of my bias, that the life of a student is the hardest of all. Think about it (or back to it): students have so much to balance; from school to friends to relationships to family. I saw a graphic on an academic site called twitter.com that summed up this balancing act perfectly.

As a student I can attest to the truth of this triangle. Each point requires a lot of attention but it is far from easy, some might say impossible, to properly attend to them all. For any student, balance can be difficult to find. For a student living with type one diabetes the balancing act gets a bit more tricky.

This first post is to establish who I am and what this blog is about. I want to begin by saying that I have not found the perfect balance. This blog is for me just as much as it is for my readers. It will help me to chronicle my experiences and hold myself accountable for my daily decisions. That being said...

I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes on May 18, 2006. That day changed my life more than I would have been able to comprehend at 8 years old. Through elementary, middle, and high school I have experienced highs and lows (figuratively and literally) that shaped who I am today.

Currently I am a sophomore at Harding University studying abroad in London, England. Living away from home, especially across the pond, brings new challenges to the management of my disease. I want to create a community of teenage and young adult diabetics who are learning to balance their diabetes and their new or budding independent life. I will post about my experiences, thoughts, tricks, and feelings as they pertain to my life with T1D. It’s an overall normal life...just with a with bit more conscious effort to survive. :)