When I was 16, on a regular afternoon, my parents called me to tell me that the blood test results I had taken came back with abnormally high blood glucose (BG) levels. My pediatrician recommended I go to the emergency room immediately. Suddenly, there I was listening to the doctors explaining what my new Type One Diabetes (T1D) diagnosis meant.

I felt worried, exhausted, anxious, upset, baffled, confused. But most of all, I felt scared. It was a life-changing diagnosis, and I felt very unprepared. I didn’t want this to be my new norm. I didn’t want to constantly check my blood sugar, count carbs, inject insulin, and on and on. Yet I knew that I was still the same person because living differently didn’t make me “other than,” it just added another burden onto my everyday life. It was then that I promised myself that I would not let this disease prevent me from positively living my life.

Surprisingly, being T1D has provided me with so many more positives in my life than I could ever have imagined. I reconnected with a friend from my grammar school that had T1D. She introduced me to a T1D summer camp, which I am still active with. It means so much to me to have friends that understand my experiences.

Choosing to coexist with the negatives of diabetes and not let them get the better of me gives me the self-confidence to be me. But I don’t think I was able to truly embrace this mindset until I was introduced to Anne Frank’s writing. Anne Frank has made me feel heard and seen in my struggles. I take to heart her resilience and courage and strive to apply it to my life every single day.

Sarah Brennan, age 18, Mayfield Senior School of the Holy Child Jesus