I hate to waste my time and my energy. I resented the complicated math classes I was forced to take in college because I knew there was no point in my life when I would have to find the route of x through y times b-squared divided by 17. I’m sure there a hundred thousand math teachers desperate to argue with me over how important it is that I understand that concept, but to me, it seemed like a waste of time.

I couldn’t get out of math class (believe me, I tried), but there are things in life that can consume my energy, wastefully or not, that I do have control over.

Diabetes is one of those things.

I will not waste energy wishing I don’t have diabetes. Diabetes is a part of my life. Someday, yes, they will find a cure and I will stand in line for that, but in the mean time, diabetes is a part of my life every day.

What do I consider a waste of time and energy when it comes to diabetes?

-Wishing I didn’t have it.

-Ignoring it until it becomes such a huge problem that I have to work four times as hard to take care of it because I neglected it for so long.

- Fighting with my parents over when to check my blood sugar. This is part of my life, checking my blood sugar, if I just do it, I’ll save myself a lot more time than waiting until I’m really low and need to be taken to the hospital.

- Getting angry at my diabetes. It is no one’s fault that I have this disease. Not mine, not my mother’s and my doctor’s. Instead of getting angry, I’m going to see what I can do positively with my diabetes, whether I’m helping five year-olds learn about their disease or teaching my friends about diabetes.

- Purposefully forgetting to take my insulin: okay, so this may happen once or twice by accident, but making a regular habit out of this isn’t all that realistic. We have diabetes, we know that we need insulin when we eat, when we sleep, when we spend the day sick at home on the couch. I’m not going to waste my energy pretending I don’t need insulin just because it seems easier at the time to skip it and eat pizza the way my friends eat pizza.

- Not asking for help when I'm struggling! There are so many people who can help me better understand my body and my blood sugars, but if I don’t ask for help because I’m wasting my energy being stubborn, scared, in denial, or just plain lazy, I’m just going to make diabetes more challenging and thus use up even more of my energy while I try to stay on top of it!


Diabetes requires a lot of attention, patience, and management. I will gladly put energy towards those tasks, towards learning how to take care of it as best I can, but I will not waste a single drop of energy on wishing my reality was something different. I have this disease and that is that!