The Story
My diabetes story.
In 2017, I was finishing my first semester at Texas A&M University, running on Red Bulls and late nights studying for engineering finals. I was exhausted in a way that didn't feel normal, but I brushed it off like every other college freshman probably did.
Over 25 pounds lost in a month. Sleeping 12+ hours and still waking up drained. Drinking water constantly and still feeling thirsty. My friends pushed me to get checked out, and the campus clinic quickly diagnosed me with Type 1 diabetes.
I was incredibly lucky I didn't end up in the hospital. My blood sugar was four to five times higher than normal. But at the time, it didn't feel like luck. It felt like something had just been taken off the table for me.
“Type 1 only becomes a limit if I treat it like one.”
Over time, I learned that I can't control the diagnosis, but I can control how I react to it. That shift has shaped a lot of my life since then. Moving across the country. Taking on new challenges. Choosing situations that once would have felt harder or more uncertain.
And now: training for the New York City Marathon — running 26.2 miles to raise money for Beyond Type 1, the nonprofit funding research, advocacy, and support for the T1D community.