Talking . . .

I’m excited to be participating in Joslin’s National Diabetes Month Blog Project, along with a great bunch of d-bloggers.  We have been given four topics to post about and we've been sharing our thoughts on each week’s topic on our blogs.  Aside from raising awareness about life with diabetes, we are also pitching in to try to raise some funds for Joslin’s High Hope’s Fund.  You’ll see a link at the end of this post to their fundraising page, if you’d like to donate.

This week’s topic is: Talking: Why/how did you get into blogging? What have been the best and worst parts of doing so?

Ah, talking.  Sometimes talking makes me nervous, and I get this babbling thing going where I barely take a breath.  But writing?  Writing is something I’ve always felt very comfortable with and something I’ve always loved.  As a kid I wrote long letters to my cousins.  As a teen I signed up for a pen-pal and we wrote epic, 30+ page letters back and forth (and we’re still friends on Facebook).  In college, between term papers and class notes, I wrote letters that kept me in touch with my friends back home.

So I guess it’s not so surprising that I got hooked on blogging pretty easily.  I started out with a knitting blog, and I loved connecting with others across the country who shared my love for our hobby.  But my knitting blog wasn’t nearly as rewarding as Bitter~Sweet has been.  Because this blog has connected me with others not only across the country, but around the world, who also have diabetes or care for someone who does.  Blogging has taken away the isolation of my invisible illness.  Blogging has made me a better informed patient and has helped me be in the best health of my life.  It has been so wonderful to connect with others who really understand what it’s like to fight the diabetes fight every day.  It’s incredible to answer a question for someone or support and encourage someone when they need it.  Through this blog, I’ve made so many treasured friends, many of whom I’ve been lucky enough to spend time with face to face as well as connecting on-line.

The worst part of blogging about diabetes?  Well, there isn’t much about it that I don’t like . . . . but I guess sometimes it can bring a bit of “diabetes overload”.  After all, there are a ton of d-tasks I do every day just to survive.  Now let’s add in blogging about diabetes, tweeting about diabetes, chatting about diabetes on Facebook, doing offline diabetes stuff like my JDRF volunteer work . . . . it can be a bit overwhelming at times.  But do you know what?  Even when it feels like diabetes has seeped into every second of my day, I wouldn’t trade in one minute of blogging, social media and volunteering.  Because it’s truly what I love to do.

If you’d like to donate to the Joslin Diabetes Center High Hopes Fund, you can do so by clicking here.