By Gavin Volden

Hi, my name is Gavin and I am 11 years old. I have lived with type 1 diabetes for seven years. Living with type 1 diabetes is very hard because no one understands what it’s like.nnLiving with type 1 diabetes is hard because you have to get insulin and it makes me feel shaky and out of this world. Sometimes when I am low, I don’t feel good and when I am high I get hot and it is hard to focus. When my blood sugar isn’t high or low, I feel great! I also wear cool devices.nnI wear an Omnipod 5 insulin pump and a Dexcom and they help manage my blood sugars and keep me healthy. The Omnipod is very nice because when I go high it sometimes gives me insulin on its own. Before I wore an insulin pump, I had to do shots. Whenever I got shots, I would run away because it scared me. I am thankful for my Omnipod because if I had to do shots, I would hate it. That’s why I am thankful for my pump and Dexcom.nnI hope one day that there is a cure for type 1 diabetes. I want to be a normal kid. A normal kid is someone who is not a diabetic and does not have to get juice every 5 minutes!!! Just kidding, but sometimes it feels that way. I would also like to go down the stairs on my butt without a Dexcom in my way. I just wish I did not have diabetes. Until then, I will have to deal with it.