So it has really only recently (within the past two years) come to my attention that there is a MEDAL. I could get a MEDAL for living with diabetes for 50 years.
Well, then.
I have run more miles than I care to count just for a single medal. I’ve gotten on a plane, flown across the country, frozen my tuchis off, run 26 miles, and nearly crashed on the ice on the ground at the water stations for a medal!
But this one would be a pretty cool one to earn.
It’s the Joslin medal.
I think the history is critical to understand why they even count years with diabetes… keep in mind, I am really only in the third generation of type one diabetics who did not receive a death sentence along with their diagnosis. I remember my grandma cried for days when I was diagnosed and I never understood why. Now that I’m old enough to understand what a type one diagnosis meant to her, it makes more sense. Maybe she remembered seeing kids in hospital beds, wasting away.
That has never been a part of my disease. My disease doesn’t have a time limit. In fact, I quite honestly have never really seen many limits for myself related to my type one diabetes. I know I faced one when I realized I could never be a commercial pilot… and when I realized I needed special permission for some things… but other than that… yeah, I kind of draw a blank.
Now, I understand there are limits out there. I just don’t choose to see them. Why limit myself?? I’ve got limits in terms of time, space, means, ideas, geography, practicality, gravity, financial… with all of those limits out there why would I let my diabetes add one??
Yes: Be smart. Learn. Plan. Figure. Calculate. Estimate. Determine. Be flexible.
But never stop. Stopping will not only shrink your world, it will cause you to impose needless limits on your own life.
They don’t award medals for that kind of behavior. Nope; they award medals for those people who have gone out and done their best amidst some daunting adversary conditions.
I’m thinking I have 27 years until I get that medal. Maybe I should download the application now, just so I have it.
OMG I see they have a 75 year medal too!!! Now I want that one too!!!! 
How long before you earn YOUR medal??
31 years to go for me! Lets see, in 31 years, I plan to be retired and traveling and I’ll make a stop at Joslin to pick up my medal
48 to go for me!
17 years