Oh, and I am also not graceful…
One of my roommates is moving out, so we’ve been interviewing potential roomies this week to fill the spot. When the first one came by, we sat down on the couch for the obligatory “get to know each other” questions. She asked what I do for a living and without even thinking about it, I said “I work for a biotech that makes diabetes drugs, and I have Type 1 diabetes, so its nice to work somewhere that’s so relevant to my life.”
She nodded and smiled, and my current roommates nodded in agreement. It didn’t even occur to me that I had just revealed a trait that could be perceived negatively by a prospective roommate. What if she had only one bad experience with someone with diabetes? Or what if she was judging me, thinking “Hhhhm wonder if she used to be really overweight and gave herself diabetes?”
The fact is, diabetes is so much a part of my life that I don’t separate it from any of my other innate qualities – I’m blonde, from San Diego, and I have Type 1 diabetes. It’s as much a part of me as my nationality, my gender, and anything else I came into this world with without a choice.
After mentioning it to the first interviewee, I consciously kept that as part of the “about me” discussions with other roommates. After all, I would want to know if a potential roommate had a chronic condition that shaped the way they lived. I also have never considered the possibility of that being a huge issue for someone. I think part of the reason I have always believed that people with diabetes can do whatever they want in this life is because I have never considered the thought of rejection or ever taken someone seriously who says I can’t. And I know that’s because of years of hard work by advocacy groups, lawmakers, and inspiring people with diabetes who have paved the way. It might be naïve to think that I will never face rebuff because of diabetes, but it might be that naiveté that holds me together in the face of challenge. If you never consider failure as an option, you go into a situation with more solutions, right? I’m grateful that I live in a world where I am allowed to assume diabetes will never hold me back. Hasn’t yet!
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