Assignment 21- Clifton Grady

The biggest obstacle I ever faced was actually a fairly recent one. I fell I’ll around Thanksgiving of sophomore year and continually got worse and worse as time progressed. I was losing weight at an alarming rate (something particularly frightening for a person of smaller stature like myself), I was always fatigued, I had to pee upwards of 60 times a day ( I wish this was an exaggeration), I was constantly thirsty… clearly something was wrong. This all culminated after what was one of the best weekends of my life—but that is a story for another time. Saturday morning I had a concert with the all-district jazz band. The concert went well, but my thirst and fatigue were ever present, and still I had to pee. At the end of the concert, I rushed to the bathroom to pee, and it is here where things went awry. I passed out, and upon waking up fifteen or so minutes later, I knew something was wrong. I told my mom what I had been trying to avoid—I needed to go to the hospital. I was terrified, and honestly much of those days were a blur to me, but what I do remember is something that will affect me for the rest of my life. That day, I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Coping with this disease has been cumbersome over the last year, but I have made a deliberate effort not to let it affect my life any more than it has to. Is it a pain in the ass to have to stick a needle in my arm just about any time I eat something that has carbohydrates (which is basically EVERYTHING)? Sure. Is having to make sure that glucose levels in my blood are stable annoying? Of course. But does this change who I am? Absolutely not. I haven’t stopped doing anything I enjoyed before my diagnosis (except for maybe mindlessly snacking on carbs) and I haven’t made any major lifestyle changes either ( to my benefit I already lived a fairly healthy life with enough activity and healthy eating to help me maintain my condition). As the saying goes, “it is what it is,” and I don’t let it or anything else affect me any more than it has to. Taking this attitude through life has helped me maintain relatively low stress levels and to be a relatively happy and productive person. Despite having to face this major hurdle over this last year, my outlook on life hasn’t changed, and neither have I.