Hi, readers!
My name is Sarah, and I’m thrilled to be writing to you as a new contributing writer to ASweetLife.
I was diagnosed with type one diabetes twelve years ago, at age fourteen, just a few weeks before starting my freshman year of high school. (As if entering high school wasn’t intimidating enough on its own…) Two years after diagnosis, at age sixteen, I went on my first trip abroad, with a school group, to Italy, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. And with that, my friends, the travel bug had bitten me. Diabetes, of course, doesn’t know borders, and instead of taking this as a restrictive fact, I took it as freedom: I will have diabetes wherever I go, so why not take insulin for a salad niçoise in the south of France, a dreamy gelato in Italy?
Since then, I’ve visited twenty-something countries, and in each one of them, diabetes tagged along for the ride. Through the snowy peaks of the Alps, over Amsterdam’s canals and across the Mediterranean, North, and Caribbean seas, on Greek islands and in the heart of the Sahara Desert, I’ve trekked my heart, soul, and backpack full of insulin through it all.
In 2014, during my senior year of college, my blog on life with type one diabetes, Coffee & Insulin, was born, after attending my first diabetes conference through a scholarship with DiabetesSisters. This conference, and my blog, changed everything for me. Before them, I didn’t know anyone with diabetes. I just went through life never talking about it. Writing my experience down and putting it into the world has been the best and most transformative thing I’ve ever done, however vulnerable it may feel at times.
Currently, I’m residing in Richmond, Virginia with my tortoiseshell cat, Prairie, where I write, drink coffee, and pursue graduate studies in Narrative Healthcare. In my spare time, I like hiking, yoga, mini road trips, and reading books from the ever-growing stack beside my bed.
I look forward to sharing my adventures and musings of life with type one diabetes with you!
It is an ever-evolving journey, this life, and that is what makes it so fascinating, and so big.
Cheers,
Sarah
