Independence Day and Firecrackers Galore

Everyone has a secret favorite holiday. When you think of favorite holidays, the usual suspects come to mind. Christmas is the leader for most because of the decorations and the gifts. (Eggnog? Not so much.) Thanksgiving and Easter usually follow behind because of their family and spiritual connotations, respectively, and then we start to get into slimmer pickings. Valentine’s Day is charming but can feel a little too commercialized; New Year’s Day seems like an excuse to recover from partying and get naps between football games. Labor Day is sad, really, the punctuation to summer and the last opportunity to wear white. But mixed in among those are the twin delights of Memorial Day and Fourth of July. Memorial Day signals the start of summer with all its warmth and potential, and then in the middle of summer, embedded in the heat, is the wild parade of the Fourth of July.

I love the Fourth of July. I love America, but more than anything, I love the community of celebration that gathers around the Fourth of July. People are going to have fun and they don’t care. Head to the lake and ride boats? Sure. Shoot off fireworks in the middle of the night? Why not?  Race to the amusement parks and ride screaming rollercoasters into the sun? Absolutely. Think about it: the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, an event built around dangerous levels of gluttony, is held on the Fourth of July. And it fits.

So what does this have to do with diabetes, you ask? A lot, actually. The day is memorialized around America gaining independence and marking its footprint in the world. That alone was brave, dangerous, and exhilarating. The activities I mentioned speak to the same sensibility, and Americans willingly partake in them. Diabetes, in a unique way, marks your independence in a dangerous but exhilarating manner. Having had Type I Diabetes for 24 years, this mentality is not one to easily embrace, but necessary to accomplish things in life. You are different. You live with a condition that can be difficult if not properly monitored and controlled. Like a rollercoaster. Like a boat ride. Like a firecracker. But if you do, it can bring you an amazing gratefulness for life and its many experiences. I have suffered through some terrible lows, literally and figuratively, during my time with diabetes. But I have achieved some amazing highs, and I will continue to, because I refuse to let the relentless drum of this disease defeat my indomitable spirit. I’ll fill up my Omnipod insulin pump and place it on, step out of the shadows and embrace the day. It will be a little dangerous, a little wild, but I will make it fun.

This year, for the Fourth of July, I took my two beautiful daughters to a parade and to watch fireworks. I checked my glucose levels but I still had burgers and ice cream like the rest. What about you?