Learning Story Telling at 6
Growing up, I remember coming home from elementary school each day and sitting next to my dad while I did my homework. I would be working really, intensely hard to write my vocabulary words “three times each” and my dad would be writing out a multitude of stories in his journal. I remember trying to be nosy by repeatedly asking what he was writing and he would say that when I was older, I could read it. This routine we created was normal and over time, I looked forward to sitting next to my dad and watching him get lost in these mysterious stories that I was too young to read. To this day, I’m sorry to share that I still have not read them. I know, I know, it’s disappointing. But you know what’s worth focusing on for a second?
Imagine feeling great one day and waking up the next day feeling off. You do not think anything of it and go about your day as normal while in the back of your mind, hoping the feeling will just dissolve. While you’ve dealt with these symptoms before, it doesn’t go away this time. The feeling progresses to the point that you take a trip to the hospital where you’re tested by doctors for anything and everything. You are treated as if the way your body feels is unquestionably contagious, making you feel far from those you viewed as close the day before. After long, stressful hours of waiting, you receive a diagnosis that will change your daily routine and you feel as though it is a death sentence given without your consent. All you can think about is that people die from this every day if it is not managed well and there are underlying health conditions complicating it. Just like that, you are forever changed.
Am I talking about diabetes? Am I talking about coronavirus?
Interchange the focus from diabetes to coronavirus, or the technical name, COVID-19, and the story is the same. Diabetes and the coronavirus are different and yet they are the same.