Diabetes Bag – Diary of a Daydreamer

Life is full of highs and lows. Especially when you’re me. Because, as of today, I’ve been living with Type One Diabetes for two whole years – and those years have been, quite literally, filled with highs and lows.

In case you didn’t know, I have this chronic condition/disease thingy called Type One Diabetes. Basically, my body can’t create this hormone called insulin, and insulin is something your body needs “to allow sugar (glucose) to enter cells to produce energy”*. So I take an artificial medicine version of it and monitor my blood sugar.

*https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/type-1-diabetes/symptoms-causes/syc-20353011

It’s weird though because it honestly feels like SO MUCH more than two years! I actually just wrote five years by accident. That just goes to show you – and me – that this is my new normal now! Even though sometimes I’ll forget to bolus for dinner, I’ve basically forgotten what it’s like to not need insulin to eat! In fact, I almost told my sister the other day to bolus for her brownie, like everyone needed to do that. 😂

I mean, some days I kinda want to scream “WHY CAN’T YOU JUST BE A FULLY FUNCTIONING PANCREAS LIKE A NORMAL PERSON” at my pancreas (😂), but other days I’ll wake up and be like “Hey, I’ve raised about $5,000 total for Type One Diabetes, and I’ve been an ambassador for the JDRF gala in my area and I’m gonna be this year, too, and I’ve helped people with my story!” Like I said, highs and lows!

It’s kind of crazy to see how far I’ve come from that first day back from the hospital where I was so stressed, wondering if my blood sugar would ever, ever come down and I was freaking out when I couldn’t eat things and I had to get used to taking four shots a day and constantly keeping my blood sugar in mind

Now, when I want to do a correction, I tap a few numbers into my pump (and an auto-correct ((haha! autocorrect)) update is even coming out soon!!) , I basically can have anything minus non-diet sodas (which is a choice) and I just have to swap out my pump site every three days and change my DexCom CGM every ten!

When I think back on that fateful day two years ago when I was slogging through an entire basketball game while in diabetic ketoacidosis, spent hours in a waiting room, getting the news that my current resting heart rate was 144, being rushed to the ER, getting the news I had Type One, and being rushed to the ICU…now I see less of all of that stuff, and more of the good things.

Like how we accidentally got the head nurse when we weren’t supposed to and she figured it out. Or how in the middle of the night, comforting worship lyrics came like a whisper. Or how my Grandma just happened to be there so she could take care of my little sister when I was in the hospital. Or when I got home, my family had cleaned my room for me and people had brought gifts and meals for me. All the little things God gave me, helped me, comforted me.

So…yeah. It’s been two years of highs and lows, but it feels like I’ve had this my whole life! And even though sometimes I get frustrated and I miss out on things and I feel bad when I’m low, I’ve been able to help people because of this. And, right now, I’m perfectly healthy.

So thanks to my mom and dad for being my pancreas, my mom for being my emotional support human and my dad for being the resident IT guy when it comes to my pump and numbers, to my awesomely supportive sister, to my whole entire family, to JDRF for all of the support and opporunities, to my amazing friends who don’t treat me any differently, and to you, the person reading this. Thanks for your amazing support. ❤️❤️❤️

P.S. – If you share this post by reblogging, pinning on Pinterest, sharing on social media, or sending the link to a friend, you’ll get three FREE desktop wallpapers sent straight to your inbox! Just leave a comment telling me how you shared this post!

Hey daydreamers! I honestly can’t believe that school is starting in a few days. I’m half completely freaking out and half really, really excited! My favorite part of Back-To-School is always school supplies shopping! We recently went a few weeks ago, and I spent the following days decorating binders, notebooks, and getting all my stuff together.

There’s this big event my school has every year the Thursday before the first day of school called Back-To-School Bash, where you meet your teachers, sign up for clubs, meet the new kids, buy yearbooks and spirit wear, and there’s always food trucks and a big presentation. Every year, the day after the Bash, we put our backpacks and supplies together!

Today I’m going to be showing you guys what’s in my backpack for the first day of school, plus how I decorated my binders and how I organize my things!

First, let’s start with the backpack itself. I got a new backpack for sixth grade because I needed a bigger one, since this year I’m trying to just use one backpack instead of lugging around two giant heavy bags. I got it from Academy for around $45, and I love it!

It says Adidas on the front and has a line of black strap thingies (what do I even call that 😂) to hook things like your lunchbox on, and it’s this pretty striped gray/white pattern. There’s five different zipper pockets, a mesh pocket towards the front, and a laptop pocket in the back, along with mesh pockets on the sides for your waterbottle.

Here’s a back view of the backpack – the gray/white pattern is on part of the straps, along with the Adidas logo. Apparently the straps have some sort of “Loadspring Technology” to make wearing it more comfortable, and somehow that helps (even though I have no idea how that works). The straps are also padded, which is sooo nice, since my last backpack didn’t have padded straps and they rubbed and hurt sometimes. Overall, I rate this backpack 5/5 stars, because of the amount of space, comfy straps, endless pockets, and cute athletic design!

Alright, now that the boring backpack review part is over, let’s move on to what’s actually inside the backpack! (This is a What’s In My Backpack post, after all. 😉)

Let’s start by opening up the front pocket! Inside, you’ll find…another backpack? Instead of having another large minibackpack in addition to the other two backpacks I had to wear/roll around, this year I’m using my smaller blush pink minibackpack to hold my diabetes supplies for school and volleyball.

(By the way, if you didn’t know that I had Type One Diabetes and/or have no idea what that is or how it works, check out this page to learn more!)

This minibackpack has a small zipper pocket in the back (where I stash my Skittles for when my blood sugar is low), the main area in the middle zipper, and a phone/wallet pocket in the front. I got this awhile ago, so I can’t remember how much it was, but it’s from the Art Class line at Target.

Since at school I can keep my insulin and Glucagon (this special emergency medicine that’s kind of like an Epi-Pen) with the nurse, I only need to have my phone (not shown), an extra insulin pump site (the baggie in the top left corner), some applesauce to take when I’m low, an extra blood glucose meter (in the black bag), some fruit leather and a granola bar for when I’m hungry, and Starburst, skittles, and fruit snacks to take when my blood sugar is low.

In the next mesh pocket, I have my pencil bag, a hole puncher, mini stapler, and a whiteboard eraser. (Ignore the blurred blobs on the eraser, that’s just to cover up my full name, which was written on there.)

Let’s take a look inside my pencil case! I got it from Walmart, and it has this pretty holographic marble pattern that I love. It’s surprisingly roomy and really cute! I think it was around $8, but I’m not super sure.

And here’s everything that’s inside! I have a Sharpie highlighter, pencils, a pink eraser, map pencils, black and blue pens, red gel pens, Expo markers, washable Crayola markers, a pencil sharpener, tons and tons of crayons, scissors (once again, the blurs are covering up my name), a bunch of scented erasers that I’ve had forever and never used, some sticky note tabs, and finally a gluestick and blue gel pens.

Tip: To keep your different supplies together, use clear hair elastics! When you have a lot of one item, like a boxful of crayons, then you can use a medium-sized rubber band and wrap it around twice. This trick really helps and it keeps you from digging through your pencil case to find all your markers! For extra credit, ~~heh heh see what i did there~~ you can also put different supplies in small Ziploc bags. (E.G. All your pencils in one bag, all your map pencils in another, etc.)

Moving on to the zipper behind it, you can find my science binder, a book of my choice for reading time in English class, and my English book, The Secret Garden. Wishtree is an amazing book from the point of view of a tree that I really love, and The Secret Garden seems interesting, but so. Many. Words. 😳 I am pretty excited to read it, though!

And now for my Science binder! It’s just a white three-ring binder from Walmart that came with tabs and a clear pocket in the back. I drew and hand lettered the cover design myself, and I’m happy with how it turned out! I was going for a kind of desktop look, (a literal top of a desk, not a computer) and I drew pens, pencils, and a paintbrush, two differently shaped succulents, a notebook, and a phone. I’m really proud of the shading on the succulents for some reason, but I think the overall look of this cover is pretty cute!

Inside my binder, you’ll find my tabs with the clear pocket and notebook paper in the back, this cheap green calculator I’ve had since fourth grade, and a ruler that’s facing the other way and looks like a white strip of paper, but oh well. There’s also a book called The Case for a Creator tucked in that pocket, and I’m actually really excited to read it. It’s a journalist showing how science proves that God exists, and it seems pretty cool.

My five tabs read Assignment Sheets, Homework, Reference, Labs, and Graded Work. By the way, thankfully we get to leave our giant, heavy hardcover science textbooks at home, so I don’t have to carry it in in my backpack.

In the next and last pocket, you’ll find my English and Math binders, along with the textbooks and workbooks for each of the subjects. First, we’ll start with my math stuff.

(my textbook)

Here’s my math textbook – we’re actually using a different textbook at my school this year, and I’m really happy with the change, since our last textbook was heavy, very boring, and we never used it anyways. In our old textbook, the foreword literally said “no colors or pictures to distract from learning”. How boring is that? This new textbook actually is colorful with illustrations and it’s consumable, so you can write directly in it.

And here’s my math binder! It’s just a teal two-inch three-ring from Walmart. I printed out some pretty aesthetic gold-and-blue marble from a website called Free Pretty Things For You, and then hand-lettered the word Math with my brush pen! I messed up really bad on my name at the bottom, so I covered it up with a black box and wrote my name over it with a white paint pen. Unfortunately you guys can’t see how I lettered it since it’s blurred, but I used a tall, all-caps font to contrast with the cursive. I think it turned out really cute, and it’s definitely my favorite design I did!

Inside, I basically just have a bunch of tabs (numbered 1-33 for each week of the school year) and some notebook paper and graph paper in the back. The table of contents shows 1-52 since we ordered that many tabs, and then took out the ones we didn’t need. Also, behind the table of contents is my login stuff for the math websites we use for class.

This is my English binder! Again, it’s a purple/pink one-and-a-half inch binder from Walmart. I painted the watercolor part myself to match the color of the binder, and then handlettered the world English in big, tall letters. I also wrote my name underneath in a long, wide cursive, but again it’s blurred. This design isn’t my favorite, but I’m still happy with it.

Inside the binder, I have a bunch of papers I had to pick up at the Back-To-School Blast, and tabs that say Assignments, Warm-Up, Grammar, Vocab, and Reading/Novels. I ran out of tabs that came with the binder, so there’s also two lonely tabs in the back that say Writing and Research.

Next, for the rest of my English stuff! I have two textbooks, a notebook, and a binder.

First, I have my Grammar textbook, which has the most boring illustration ever. In past years there’s been rocket ships, undersea scenes, even one that was Australia-themed. But they really couldn’t think of anything more interesting than a guy waiting at the airport? Seriously? 😂

I also have a Vocabulary textbook, which I’ve flipped through and is pretty boring, but oh well. The cover also isn’t the most interesting in the world, either. I do think vocabulary and English in general is pretty fun, though, so hopefully this textbook won’t be too bad!

And last but not least, I have a plain purple/pink spiral that matches my binder. It has 100 pages, it’s college-ruled, and blank right now. Also, not sure why I needed to show you what the inside of a notebook looks like, but here ya go.

And that’s it for this super long backpack tour! I really hope you guys liked this post – I had an awesome time making it, and hopefully me showing you my textbooks and pencils was somewhat interesting.

By the way, if you’re wondering where my History/Social Studies stuff are, that’s because I don’t take History at school! Instead, I take a homeschool class with Riley’s mom and a bunch of my friends.

Also, if you’re wondering if I’m public schooled or private schooled, I’m actually neither! I go to a type of school called University Model, where I actually am at school on Tuesdays and Thursdays and the rest of the days I have assignments and homework. It’s also structured a lot like college, where you have 16-week semesters, pick your classes, and this year we even all have different schedules instead of all going from class to class together. It’s also a K-12 school, so I’m not starting a new school or anything for middle school. My classes are just upstairs. 😉

Now, it’s your turn! What’s in YOUR backpack? What type of school do you go to? Should I do a room tour or dance bag/volleyball bag tour? Should I show you guys what my backpack looks at the end of the year vs. the beginning? Are you excited for Back-To-School?