Stop being a know-it-all

I have type-1 diabetes. If you don't know what that means - it doesn't mean that I'm too fat or don't exercise enough - then look it up.

To clarify, I was diagnosed when I was 4-years-old after getting severely ill with the flu. It kick started something that caused my immune system to attack my pancreas, the organ that produces insulin - which digests sugar amongst other important things. In the end, I lost all of my baby fat, threw up all of the time, had a completely unquenchable thirst, and was always going to the bathroom. I was diagnosed a couple weeks later.

I tell you this story because I continue to come across ignorant, and subsequently completely insensitive, people who tell me I should fix myself or take an herbal remedy or fix whatever problems I've had in my past life to make myself better. Can you even hear yourself? What child of four-years asks for this? My parents were good to me. I don't believe in past lives, and I've lived my very best in this one. And even if I haven't, I don't think it's fair to say a four-year-old should get a chronic illness because karma had it coming.

We are not know-it-alls. I appreciate the admission of ignorance to the giving of advice on something you know nothing about. Sorry, but where were you when my parents were crying in the shower to stop us from hearing them elsewhere? Where were you when I ran around my house screaming while my parents told me that I only needed the one injection? Where were you when I nearly fainted in my kindergarten class? Where were you when I refused, time and time again, to have sweets with the other kids? Where are you, everyday, when I consciously have to carry juice, sugar, and wear an I.V. of insulin to ensure that my blood sugar levels are maintained to keep me alive?

You have not lived my life. You do not know my struggles or my past, and I do not wish to make myself into a victim over something I cannot change. This is simply a part of my life. It does not control me, and I am only happy to admit that I have learned a great deal through my experiences with it.

Be respectful. Keep stupid thoughts to yourself. "We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves to those we let slip out." - Winston Churchill. Guard your mouth carefully.