1 . I was fifteen and a high school freshman when I started rapidly losing weight. I was about 130 pounds, and I was ________ ten pounds every couple of weeks. I couldn’t understand why I was always hungry, thirsty, and never ________.Every night I ________ five or six times, feeling like I had to go to the bathroom, but I never really had to. Finally, I decided to go to the hospital to ________ nothing bad was going on.

I remembered being ________ in the hospital, confused, hungry, and with an extremely ________ blood sugar level. The doctors and nurses thought I might pass out, so they injected me and told me the worst news I could have imagined— tests showed that I had Type 1 juvenile diabetes. I was so ________ that the only question I could think to ask was, “Am I going to die?” A nurse told me to go out, enjoy a meal with my family, and ________, because tomorrow my new, difficult life would begin.

I don’t remember what time I had to be at the hospital, ________ I know it was early. Three nurses, one dietician, and a doctor all trained me, over the course of two days, to ________ me. Every needle hurt, but in some way I began to feel ________ every time I was able to think about the needles without crying.

Now, nearly three years later, I still remember the ________ when the doctors told me I was a Type 1 diabetic. I’m ________ when I look back that I was able to be strong, and that my family and friends supported me. I’m now two months shy of eighteen. To this day, I have had 3,38 needle injections, but each of them helps me to remember I must be strong. ________, I am grateful for my disease—it has made me the person I am today, and I would never ________who I am.