SELFless

So, back in the beginning of February I was contacted by someone at SELF Magazine, asking me to answer a series of questions regarding my life as a Diabetes Blogger/Diabetes Advocate. Turns out a friend (who I have mentioned in past posts - think CHIABETIC,) had submitted information about me and my on-line life, and I was being considered for their "Be SELFless" column in the April edition of SELF.

Since I'm more about being SELF deprecating and flipping my inner diabetes bitchswitch whenever needed, I thought it was kind of a cool opportunity.

A series of interview questions went back and forth (we're talking like 3 pages worth,) over the net. Then, as quickly as the emails started, they stopped and I didn't hear anymore about it and I thought, OK, they went with someone else.

Cut to the third week in February, when I received an email from SELF saying they had decided to run with my story and needed pictures.

I sent them some pics and asked if I could read what they wrote, but apparently, that's not how it works - which I already knew- but me being me, I had to ask anyway.

I was nervous, I wasn't used to NOT having control over my diabetes on-line indevors.

What if I sounded like an idiot?

Cut to last Tuesday when I was at Hudson News at Union Station in DC, perusing through the magazine isle and saw The April Edition of SELF with Kim Kardashian on the cover -YES, God does indeed have a sense of humor.

I flipped through the pages and found the Be SELFless Column in the lower hand corner of the page -And there was my picture, with Grace of my heart from A Sweet Grace. Big SHOUT OUT to Penny, Author of A Sweet Grace & (Grace's mom,) for allowing me to use the picture:THANKS, PENNY! And accompanying the picture was a paragraph.

Kelly & Grace in SELF Mag

And I noticed:

A. The DOC (Diabetes On-Line Community) was mentioned - YAY!

B. My quote "I'm not a Dr., but I'm an expert at dealing with diabetes 24X7, 365 days a year, without time off for good behavior," had been cut in 1/2 and was written as: I'm not a Dr., but I'm an expert at dealing with the disease." AND YES, that made me nervous.

C. Gracie look great!

But still, I was happy for the most part, even if I had qualms about sounding like a Diva.

Here's the thing, as big of a loud mouth as I am, I worry A LOT - about the good,the bad and the diabetesalicious of it ALL.

Cut to Monday night, when the news hit twitter - And again - I WAS NERVOUS -We're talking downing Maaloxx & tums type of nervous!

Cut to yesterday, when I started getting emails from people with diabetes looking for on-line support!

You know what? I am so incredibly grateful for the interview opportunity with SELF- even if it meant giving up control to the unknown. WHY? Because people who needed to find the Diabetes On-line Community started contacting me and asking where they could go to find support & friendship. And as we all know, finding the DOC is wonderful thing! And I'll do whatever I can to help spread the word!