“I remember being playful, happy, and free. I remember feeling like I could do anything. Until one day everything changed. I remember feeling sick and going to the hospital. I remember all the needles. I remember all the blood. I remember my family hoping everything was okay. I remember the doctors face, the tone of his voice, and exactly what he said, “You have Type 1 Diabetes”. I remember all the shots. I remember checking my blood sugar every single day. At that moment I was hopeless, with questions in my head I was too scared to say aloud. I remember feeling like everything I worked towards was for nothing. I remembered everything, even the good things aside from all the bad. I remember my family by my side. I remember hearing I was lucky I wasn’t in a coma. I remember this was given to me for a reason. I had to remind myself I wasn’t the only one suffering. I had to remind myself I wasn’t fighting this sickness alone. The last thing I remember was the fear, anger, sadness, laughter, joy, and love.”

From my little sister who wanted to express how she felt first hand. She is younger than me and not even my kid , but the things children can teach you are simply amazing and inspiring that despite being hit with such a serious condition she can still find some light to shine on her family.

I want to include a mothers experience of being in a situation where their child is a type one diabetic. I was able to acquire an original poem by my own mother, about the consistent struggles of living with diabetes.

“Iv’e been quiet for over a year now. You don’t know my story. You don’t fight this fight with me. You don’t stay up all night with me. You don’t hear the sounds every electronic device in the house makes because of the CGM. You don’t count carbs with me. You don’t do the mathematical equations with me. You don’t give the insulin injections with me. You don’t buy the insulin that the insurance doesn’t cover with me. You don’t work 2 jobs to ensure you can purchase what insurance doesn’t cover with me. You don’t see the high’s. You don’t see the low’s. Or all in between. You don’t watch my daughter struggle with this invisible disease. You don’t know what it is like to live with T1D [Type one diabetes]. It is a constant struggle of you vs you, just to stay alive. You don’t know my story…”

My 11 year old sister, Natilee, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes about two years ago. When we first heard the words “diabetes” we were in shock, Natilee is a very active and playful child. How could she get diabetes? Was it from eating all that junk food over time? Maybe we did not have a healthy enough diet set in place. In actuality it was not anything we could control, type 1 diabetes is completely unpredictable and can occur from something as basic as ones genes. Type 1 diabetes is a result from the body’s immune system attacking and destroying insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Constant blood sugar checks, carb counting, limitations on when to eat, insulin shots, lantus shots, etc. All became apart of me and my family’s daily lives. Am I upset? I know everything happens for a reason and God does not make mistakes, but I just wish it could have been me instead. No child should have to wake up at 4 o’clock in the morning just to make sure their blood pressure is not too high or low. No child should have give themselves a shot every time it is time to eat a meal. No child should be told they cannot eat certain things because it is not for your blood sugar. However, there are children being told this everyday, and now I am able to witness it. This is our reality, and we living, learning, and laughing through it still.

Imagine being an average 8 year old child, not a care in the world; living free and running wild. Then suddenly your life is interrupted by constant thirst and frequent trips to the restroom. You take a visit to the Urgent Care and they diagnose you with a stomach virus and send you on your way. The only issue now is that’s 5 days later and your previous symptoms now come with a side of nausea, vomiting and pale skin; all the color has left your body and you look like a human ghost. This time, the urgent care is not an option and for as much as you dread hospitals, the Emergency room has your name written all over it. The nurse checks you in and says “it sounds like a stomach virus to me, wait in the quick care room”. Your mom is now enraged because she knows that a “stomach virus” is not the answer, my goodness, you just puked your guts out and it resembled a mixture of tar the coffee grinds. The doctor comes in and agrees with your mom; a chest x-ray and urine sample are requested. On your way back form the chest x-ray, doctors and nurses start swarming around you until you feel like you can’t breath. The doctors finally figured out what was wrong. Then that’s when you realize you’ll never be that free ,wild, and careless child ever again.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.