20 Years of Sweetness

As I scrolled through Facebook today and saw all of the posts #oklahomastrong #weremember I am proud of the state where I grew up.  April 19, 1995...20 years ago today...we all know where we were and what we were doing.  We all remember when we felt the ground shake and thought something bad happened, but none of us expected the horror that was to come.  This day forever changed the state of Oklahoma and the whole world knows that story, but this day also changed my life personally on a different level.  On the morning of the OKC bombing my family was on the way to the doctor for my first insulin injection.  I was standing in my house getting ready to deal with my new diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes and our world was forever changed personally while the bombing was going on around us.  As the state grieved for those lives lost, my family grieved our own life changes...and well meaning people tried to comfort my mom by saying things like "at least she isn't buried in a pile of rubble."  Of course no one thought what we were going through compared to what those families were experiencing, but everyone does have to grieve their own personal loss and you can't disregard that moment or lesson that experience either. 

Last year my sister and I decided to run in the Memorial Marathon to honor our own experience and Oklahomas and we will be doing that again this year.  We decided that the best way to remember is to never forget.

 

Everyday people experience loss and hurt and disease and sadness.  These people might look like normal healthy people on the outside and smile as they pass you by.  You may never see that they carry a deep secret or that they lost a loved one, or they wear their own insulin pump and CGM, or that they had a heart valve replaced because they keep their head held high.  20 years is a long time, and time heals things, but it never goes away. 

Today I am sad for Oklahoma, but I'm also proud.  I'm proud that Oklahoma survived and is stronger.  I'm proud that I live in a state where people come together and support one another, where times are changing and people are giving and where next week more than 20,000 people will run to REMEMBER us.  That is amazing. 

But today personally I'm proud that I have survived 20 years with a disease that kills people everyday.  I have counted carbs and done injections and worn a pump and checked my blood sugar and I have survived and I am proud today to celebrate my 20th Diaversary! 20 years is a milestone for me.  It has not been easy or perfect, and it never will be...but 20 years later I'm here #diabeticstronginoklahoma!