Hey,
Please check my college essay and help me choose a title… maybe someone can advise me how to write a hook for this essay?
Message Body:
Doctors’ offices are never a good sign. The dingy old wallpaper and the musty smell to match. The pitying look they give when they must deliver bad news. The look that makes you feel like you’d rather be anywhere but there. Anywhere you wouldn’t be forced watch as your mother’s eyes fill with tears. Hear the blood rushing through your ears as you struggle to process what they are saying. Feel the tension in the room, stifling the air and making it hard to breathe. Taste the bile rising in your throat as they tell you to pack your bags.
I was in sixth grade when I received my diagnosis – a diagnosis that would rock my world and ultimately change my life. Diabetes was a big, scary word, and I had no idea what it was or what it meant. Even my mother, a nurse who’d identified the symptoms, knew little about the burden this newly found disease dropped on my shoulders. The first step to overcoming this disease was learning about it. How to take care of myself day in and day out, and even more terrifying, the ramifications that would ultimately present themselves if I failed to take care of myself. But after days in the hospital, many, many doctor visits, and years of practice, I’ve become rather proficient. Managing type 1 diabetes has become second nature. I no longer need think about checking my blood sugar, or how many carbohydrates are in a cup of pasta, or how much insulin I need to give for dinner.
But managing my diabetes is different than simply knowing how to manage it, and it’s something I still struggle with today. I have to check my blood sugar any time I eat or drive, which can add up to 10 plus checks a day. Early on, I gave my insulin using syringes. That meant calculating how much to give based on both my blood sugar and the carbohydrates I’d eaten and then drawing up the proper amount of insulin and injecting the needle into my skin. I’d give myself a shot of insulin anywhere from three to six times a day. Eventually I transitioned to an insulin pen, which worked much the same way as the syringes, except that it was easier to administer the proper dose. After six months of shots, I graduated to an insulin pump, which simplified the whole routine. Now when I check my blood sugar, my blood glucose meter syncs directly with my pump, so all I have to do is tell it how many carbs I ate and the pump does the math based on predetermined ratios. I do still stick myself with needles every three days when I change my site and when I check my blood sugar, of course. It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s the best we have at the time. But as technology advances, we move closer and closer to that solution every day. That’s the reason I work so diligently to raise awareness and money for diabetes research.
When I was first diagnosed, I didn’t keep it a secret; I wasn’t embarrassed, but more importantly, I wanted to educate people about what type 1 diabetes really was, instead of letting them rely on their knowledge based on ignorant stereotypes. And I’ve heard many. People assume you get diabetes because you’re fat or you ate too much sugar. Some are surprised because I “don’t look diabetic.” I like to tell people about my diabetes: how I take care of it, the difference between type 1 and 2, why I got it (although, it’s not known for sure) mostly because I hate dealing with ignorant people making assumptions about me because their grandpa had type 2 diabetes and they think they can relate to me by telling me he’s blind.
Each year since my diagnosis, I have taken part in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation fundraiser, One Walk. I create a team and encourage friends and family to join and help raise money.
Sources and assistants:
[Diabetes | College Essays | Teen Ink](Diabetes | Teen Ink)
[Chegg[/url] - thanks for Elizabeth F!
[url=“http://acewriters.org/essay-helper.html”]Ace Helper](https://www.chegg.com/tutors/Essay-Writing-online-tutoring/) - thanks Linda Merrill for the advice