Day 9: Keep Calm And Smile At Their Ignorance

The prompt for this post was to create a 'Keep Calm and...' poster based on diabetes.  Most people I talk to about diabetes are genuinely very interested and curious about what it's all about.  Unfortunately, not everyone's completely understanding and in my lifetime I've encountered some people who can't even see past their own nose, let alone begin to comprehend  even the basics of what it means to have diabetes.

The thing that really used to get my back up when I was younger was when people would say things like "I wish I had diabetes because then I couldn't eat sweets and then I would never get fat".  First of all, having diabetes doesn't mean that you can't eat a few sweets now and again.  Secondly, if you're a diabetic and you have a lot of low blood sugars, you will have to eat more to balance them out again and if this happens on a regular basis then you will still put weight on.  Thirdly, if you don't want to get fat, EXERCISE!  Lastly, don't ever wish you had diabetes because if it comes true you'll start wishing you'd kept your mouth shut.

Anyway, I used to get a bit moody when people used to say stupid things about diabetes.  I even remember running off crying at a sleepover when I was about 8 years old, because one of my friends had said I wasn't allowed a Malteser because I was diabetic.  Now, however, I think it's best to take this approach...