My mother and I were at a local farmer's market being held at our town hall. We live in a small Maine town, so events like this happen all the time. It was just a few tables where people sold baked goods and soaps and little wooden cars. Of course, they want you to taste things too. That's the real reason why you go: free samples.
Well, we stopped at this one stall because they had cheese spreads and I was a little interested so I tried some of the cheeses. Then the lady offered us some fudge to try and I said no thank you. This woman insisted that I try some so my mom stepped in to explain.
"She has diabetes," my mother explained. We had both kind of hoped that we could leave it at that.
"She doesn't look like it," the lady remarked.
"It's juvenile diabetes," my mother explained further, but my brain was already far away.
Do I look like diabetes? What does diabetes look like?
Maybe people only see Type 2 diabetes on the news, so they think that everyone with diabetes looks like that? But someone can look overweight and not have Type 2.
How come people don't understand the difference?
But all of my friends understand the difference. In fact, most people my age would never say something like that. The only people who have really misunderstood are older people. Is it a problem with education?
When I look in the mirror, I don't see a diabetic person. I see a collection of ideas in one person who happens to be me. Before diabetes, I didn't even think about my body. I didn't think about what I ate. I didn't think about how healthy or unhealthy I was.
I just was.
Now, just being takes more thought, but I still am.
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