#November

It's November...Diabetes Awareness Month! My plan for this month involves stories...simple, everyday, real-life stories about living with diabetes. I plan to tell them here as narratives, just snippets of a day with diabetes, with as little context or editorializing as possible. And I plan to tell them, or stories like them, more often in the 'real world' this month when friends ask, 'How's it going,' or relatives ask what I've been up to.

I think everyday stories have an incredible power to educate, break down stereotypes and stigma, and create energy for change in ways that straight facts do not. 

Great minds think alike, I guess, since I learned this morning that JDRF and ADA are both encouraging storytelling this month as well. We're encouraged to make this invisible illness a bit more visible; using hashtags, of course.

The American Diabetes Association has introduced the hashtags #DearDiabetes and #thisisdiabetes.

JDRF encourages continued use of their current go-to, #T1DLooksLikeMe and has added #T1DYouDon'tSee for this month's festivities.

So stay tuned for some stories this month. I hope they encourage you to tell your own.