If I could wave a wand…

would I make diabetes go away?

Let us ponder this for a moment.

There’s always great stipulations to wand waving. The magic fairy waved a wand and sang a song over Cinderella and she had to be home by midnight or her carriage was going to turn back into a pumpkin. The fairies waved a wand over Aurora to weaken a curse that was put on her by an evil fairy so that she’d fall asleep instead of die at the age of 16 and only loves true kiss could wake her up. Pinocchio’s blue fairy brings him to life and tells him that if he wants to be a real boy he has to be brave, truthful, unselfish and able to tell the difference between right and wrong and there was also the part about his nose growing if he lied. The receivers of the wand waving all experienced a downside.

It’s like Newton’s third law of motion: with every action is an equal and opposite reaction. (Before I bury myself here let me clarify that I understand that Newton’s laws of motion had to do with physics but follow me here and you’ll see that it really does apply.)

Everything has an opposite. With good came evil. With light came darkness. With magic wands come huge stipulations, understandings and fine print that we never get to see. It’s just a matter of when it will hit. How badly do you really want what is being offered because you’re about to make a huge sacrifice of some sort is basically what it boils down to.

And so we return to the original question: If we could make diabetes go away by waving a wand, would we?

The general population would see two answers. Yes and No. Most would probably say yes without a second thought and in the event that waving the wand was all there is to it, I most likely 100%-ly would say yes, please take this disease away from me because I vehemently hate it

But I return to Newton’s law. Nothing is ever as easy as waving a wand and so what would my end of the bargain be. What is the reaction to the action?

I see it as this: diabetes can be taken away but so would everything else that came with it, good and bad.

I’m not willing to lose the good in return for a wave of a wand, so I’ll settle for the bad.

I’m not willing to lose my friends, and I’ll tell you what, I’ve got some awesome friends thanks to this horrible disease.

I’m not willing to lose the athlete that diabetes has made me. I cannot say with any kind of surety that had I not been diagnosed with diabetes and been through the trials and tribulations that I’ve experienced that I would’ve started cycling. I probably would’ve never glanced at a marathon or a triathlon. I’d most definitely not have daily thoughts of doing an Ironman.

I’m not willing to lose the strength, determination and bullheadedness that having diabetes has instilled in me. It makes me the person that will fight for what she wants (whether I fight in a positive or negative way is another story). That drives me to be passionate about the things I do. That makes me not want to do things that I’m not passionate about. That won’t accept a half ass job surrounding anything I’m connected to (important side note: except for diabetes, I half ass it all the time). Diabetes helped strongly develop these traits that make me who I am today (I was pre-made with them).

I’m not willing to lose the community that I’ve developed relationships with. For as little as I use the access I have to so many resources and people, there are awesome communities out there for diabetes and I know that if I didn’t have diabetes that there is awesome communities out there for whatever I was into or a part of or happened to have, but it’s in the communities that exist that my world has expanded. One such example is how Diabetes365 put me in contact with an Italian that has diabetes and I get to occasionally torture him as I use my not nearly used enough education in speaking Italian.

I’m not willing to sacrifice the impact that me having diabetes has had on the lives of others who had life changing choices to make that would determine if they lived the rest of their lives with this disease.

So, would I make diabetes go away by waving a wand? No, most definitely not. I like the positives of diabetes. the positives I’ve described above. It’s made me a better person and I’m still growing as a person with diabetes and yes I have my struggles, daily, I struggle. But to take away everything that’s positive because I hate this disease wouldn’t be worth it in the least. Like I said, I’m not willing to lose the good so I’ll settle for the bad.