39 years of living well with diabetes – celebrate with me!

Today is another special day for me!

Thanks for joining me on this little celebration hike that I’m doing today. It’s a pretty big day for me!

I am celebrating 39 years living well with diabetes, and I thought what better way to do that than to get out for a little hike. There are all these awesome trails that couldn’t be more than five minutes away from my house. So, I got the day off work, I dropped my daughter off at her job, I have a little time to myself, so I’m gonna get out and enjoy the day a little bit!

Celebrating diaversaries

Why on earth would anyone celebrate the day they were diagnosed with diabetes? Sounds crazy, right? And I don’t know if celebrating is quite the right word, but taking some time to acknowledge all of the hard work that I do to take care myself, all of the times that diabetes kicks me in the teeth where I get knocked down, and then fight my way back up again.

That’s what makes us special. We somehow figure a way to fight back and get back up again and keep going. And I encourage all of us to pat ourselves on the back more often to recognize that we do amazing things every day with diabetes!

Yet we normalize it like it’s no big deal. But it IS a big deal, and we should celebrate all that work that we do! And if there’s no other time that we do that, make it your diaversary! And if you don’t know the day, celebrate the whole month! Or pick a week! Or something! But celebrate yourself. Celebrate the work you do with diabetes because it’s special and it’s unusual and no one else around you has to do that – and you deserve celebration.

So 39 years ago, on April 26th, 1980, I was diagnosed with diabetes. And you know what, I’m doing great. In fact, I’m doing better now than I’ve done in a long time. And that’s pretty great. All of you have a lot to do with that, and I’m so grateful.

Life is something to enjoy, what a blessing to be able to get out here and enjoy something like this on such a special day. Thanks for sharing the day with me.

Celebrate yourself, you deserve it.

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Scott K. Johnson

Patient voice, speaker, writer, and advocate. Living life with diabetes and telling my story. All opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily represent the position of my employer.

Diagnosed in April of 1980, I recognize the incredible mental struggle of living with diabetes. Read more…