Putting Yourself Out There!

I came across this quote, that reads: "You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, but there's still going to be someone who hates peaches."  - Dita Von Teese and as silly as it sounds, it really stuck with me.  Another thing similar that stuck with me was a quote that Shawn Shepherd said about the fact that some people hate other people's happiness and that if you're going to put yourself out there you have to have tough skin in order to look past those people who make it their job to pick on your happiness.

Overall, I am a happy person and I have found happy aspects of life behind somethings that people would label has being something that would make them unhappy.  When people tell me that they would not be able to give themselves a needle, I often laugh and say, "well if it was your life..." and they say something along the lines as, "I guess..."   It makes me wonder how they would truly handle their disease. Obviously they wouldn't see diabetes as a positive thing, and it isn't. But, if you have no choice but to live with diabetes then why spend every waking hour of it thinking about your own miserable self.

Sometimes I think to myself, what if I didn't put myself out there after being diagnosed?  In a way I think of a life that would be much more private. Is that better? I mean, I wouldn't nearly know as many diabetics as I know today, but would my diabetes just expand to the limits of needles, carb counting and insulin dosages, rather than social aspects.  It's hard to imagine if I took an alternate route upon diagnosis, but I must admit, my exposure into the world sometimes seems insane to me.

When I go on such websites as Instagram or I google diabetes, I may see something that I put out there, whether that is a picture or meme from mine and Meredith's page, Type One Diabetes Meme Page.  It is nice to see how fast things can travel, how much of an impact I can have  but at the same time I understand that I am truly throwing my life out into the world and hoping that everyone in this world is nice - and they aren't always.

When Shawn mentioned having tough skin, I immediately knew that was something I had to work on. I am not a mean person what so ever, in fact one time a person cut me off while driving, honestly my first reaction was to give him the finger (something that I almost have to think about before doing because it's not a natural habit of mine!)  upon doing it, we awkwardly sat at the red light beside each other, windows down and he said, "Hey! I am so sorry I cut you off, but why did you give me the middle finger!"  

I felt so bad...like really bad.  He almost killed me mind you, but turning in front of me, causing me to slam on breaks. But, I apologized to him and thought about it for the rest of the day and still...because doing something like that was out of character for me.  So, needless to say, my skin isn't very tough and I am not very mean!  So when I am faced with criticism, I don't do so well.

Dealing with diabetes is second nature to me, what I have done with diabetes is something that isn't necessarily unique, but it's not the norm.  To think of what I can do with diabetes, makes me excited for a happy, successful future and as long as I keep in mind that not everyone is going to be on my party ship along the way - I should be O.K.

Kayla