Diabetes is...
Waking up with a blood sugar of 113 and being proud of yourself.
Estimating the amount of carbs on a plate you're about to eat and being under 150 two hours after that meal.
Having no air bubbles in the new cartridge you just filled.
Making it through the night without a high or low blood sugar.
Having about the same (good) A1c for more than a year.
Advocating and teaching others about diabetes.
Telling a new friend you have type one diabetes and finding out they do, too.
But more importantly, diabetes is...
Waking up with a blood sugar of 436 and feeling terrible.
Estimating the amount of carbs on the plate you're about to eat and being 32 an hour later.
Not being able to get that one air bubble out of the cartridge you're filling, and being too frustrated to keep trying.
Waking up every two hours through the night to see if your blood sugar has dropped any from the 398 it was before bed.
Realizing your A1c went up 2 percentage points in 5 months.
Advocating and teaching others about diabetes, just to hear them make rude jokes about it later.
Telling a new friend you have type one diabetes and not having a new friend anymore.
More than that, diabetes is...
Crying at the sink while washing dishing because maybe you just can't handle it anymore.
Telling your best friend she needs to come over because you're home alone and your blood sugar is 584.
Wondering if you'll ever find someone that will love you enough to support you through all the literal highs and lows.
Thinking about how hard and trying it will be to start a family.
Wondering why you don't have a close relationship with anyone that has diabetes, but never wishing it on anybody else at the same time.
Having the battery in your pump run out an hour before a party starts, and wishing more than anything you could ignore it and just have fun.
Being nauseous and sweaty and shaky and having a headache because your blood sugar went from 467 to 35 in less than two hours.
Barely making it to the kitchen after waking up with a blood sugar of 31 at 3am.
Sitting on the kitchen floor in the dark, crying until your blood sugar is high enough and you have enough strength to walk back upstairs.
Crying. A lot.
Being so depressed that it's incredibly hard to get out of bed, let alone check your blood sugar four times a day.
Diabetes is hard. Diabetes is overwhelming. Diabetes is difficult and trying and ridiculous and unpredictable.
But.
Diabetes is possible. Just keep going, keep trying.
