Short Story

Boy, was I feeling depressed. It felt like my life was crashing down all around me, and no matter where I looked, there was just now way out, no solace to be found. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and yet, I was not sure what to think. My mind was flooded with thoughts and worries. “What is going to happen to me?” “Will my life ever be the same again?” “Am I going to die…?” I was zoned out, unaware of everything around me. There were no words to describe how I felt. To best explain everything, you would need to go back, back 6 years ago, all leading up to that one fateful day.
The summer before I entered the fifth grade, I was going through a rough patch in my life. I was constantly hungry or thirsty, always needing to use the bathroom. For entire days at a time, I was just flat out tired, even if I hadn’t done anything active all day. I didn’t want to do anything, go to school, play sports, and not even see my friends. All I wanted was to just sit on my couch, watch TV, or sleep. I wasn’t sure what was going on, I just thought I had lost the will to do anything. My parents, after noticing this behavior for a couple of months, took me to my doctor to finally see what was wrong. It was there and then that I was delivered the news that I had developed diabetes. I remember it perfectly: my doctor leaned over to me and said softly and gently, “I think you may have diabetes.” I remember my reaction like it was only yesterday: the voice in my mind just waiting for her to say “… just kidding, you’re fine!” But as I looked into her eyes, I realized that she was not kidding at all, she was dead serious. My mind went blank. The ride home was quiet, neither my mom nor I felt like talking much. Once I got home, I went into my room and shut the door. I sat down and buried my head into my hands, and thought to myself “I’m going to die, aren’t I?” I thought my life was going to come to an early end, when little did I know; it was only a whole new beginning.
About a week later, the news became final: I had indeed developed type A diabetes. I had developed it for no particular reason. It was in my genetics, and it had chosen to develop at that time. My diabetes required me to take insulin before every meal, constantly watch what I eat (no more sugar), get lots of exercise, and monitor my blood sugar, because if it ever got too high or too low, it would result in serious health trauma. (The reason I had been so tired was because of having high blood sugar for too long of a time.) While I was in the hospital, I learned from my parents that I had been the first on either side of the family to have ever developed diabetes. At hearing this news, I became very angry. “Why me? Of all these generations of my family, why did it have to be me? Why must I be first?” This sunk me into a slight depression, distraught over my terrible luck and this curse that had been laid upon me. But little did I know then that this little “curse” was actually just a blessing in disguise.
After leaving the hospital after a couple of days of treatment, I discovered my life did not change as much as I expected. I still hung out with my same friends, did the same things. I even felt healthier, more alive with energy. After a year of having diabetes, I noticed that I was starting to slim down more. Not only this, I found that I was in the best shape I had ever been. You see, before I developed diabetes, I was slightly overweight, in terrible shape, and had no interest in sports at all. But having diabetes changed a lot of this. Since I was now restricted from eating fatty and sugary foods, I began to lose weight. And since there was a greater need for me to exercise, I soon got in very good shape. I got more and more into sports, playing baseball and football for a couple of years, and consequentially, making tons of new friends.
What I am about to say may sound crazy, but in the long run, I am very glad that I developed diabetes. I see that it has changed my life for the better, impacting what I look like, how I act, who I am now and who I will be in the future. Sure, I know that it controls part of my life, often limits me in what I do, and just may even kill me earlier than normal. But I’m at peace with that. I know that without ever getting diabetes, I would have never been the person who I am today, and it is just now another part of my life.
Looking back, I would say that getting diabetes taught me a lot about life, and how it will sometimes treat you. Getting diabetes gave me a wake up call, telling me that I really had to care about how I lived my life. It also taught me that even though life will throw some bad stuff your way, you can always change it into a positive, and no matter what, never let it get you down on yourself.