Yesterday marked 4 years since I was diagnosed with type one diabetes. And trust, the pictures will eventually make sense… Every year I feel differently when this day comes (this year I completely forgot), but it is always bittersweet. The bitterness being how draining, misunderstood, and difficult this disease is. But the sweet being that each year I something new is accomplished. This year I ran 4 miles for the first time without my sugar even dipping low, which once terrified me. I jumped into the end of swim season and dragged my blood sugar through practices, which terrified me. But I’ve never felt so proud of myself as when I got scuba certified, with diabetes, which oddly enough, never terrified me. With no way to see my sugar, and giving up my insulin pump for shots that had to obviously stay above the surface, we dove 40 feet underwater, and for all 4 dives, my sugar was stable, and I had the most thrilling experience of my life. If you know me, you know what I love most is the water and what’s in it, and a new thing I love about being underwater (even in a cold, cloudy quarry) is that there are no blood sugar alarms, there’s no pricking my finger, there’s just me and a completely different world. I share something for every diaversary not for myself (because being vulnerable is scary) but to educate people, so that people know this disease does not stop you, and when deciding what to share I thought: what could be a better way to prove it? #beyondtype1 #diabetesawareness