A Little Bit Longer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WpPjdWTmS0

Did you know that Nick Jonas was diagnosed with type one diabetes at age 13? And that he wrote a song about it? The song is called A Little Bit Longer, and it's about life with type one. I've been listening to it for months (I know it's not a NEW song, but it's a GOOD song, and that's my kind of music so 😛) and I was thinking today about how it kind of applies to the situation of COVID-19 and how hard it's been on everyone in so many different ways. 

The line that is repeated throughout the song is "A little bit longer, and I'll be fine." In the context of life with type one diabetes, I've always taken it to mean just a little bit longer and we'll have a cure, just a little bit longer and I'll be back in range, just a little bit longer and people will understand, just a little bit longer and I'll be fine. 

When you're diagnosed with type one, you're told that there isn't a cure, so you have to have realistic expectations about what the rest of your life is going to look like. But you also kind of have to hope that one day there will be a cure, even if you don't know when it will happen or even if it will be in your lifetime, which it probably won't be. But you have to hope for something, because that's what gives you the strength to just make it through the day and do what needs to be done. Treat your low even when you don't want to eat, or do your pod change even though it's so late at night and you would rather do literally anything else in the world. Even if it isn't true, when you tell yourself that after just a little bit longer of this, you'll be fine, it leads you onto a path where maybe one day you actually will be. It's a powerful thing.

"A little bit longer, and I'll be fine."

In the context of the pandemic, I take this line to mean that we don't really know exactly what is going on with anything right now. We're all running around like chickens with our heads cut off (I'm not sure if that's a common saying or not, but my dad says it sometimes, so if that sounds weird, I blame him) confused and scared and with no direction because we don't know how to fix this quite yet. Everyone is doing their best. We have wonderful frontline workers who are working hard and deserve all of our gratitude (a BIG thank-you to all our essential workers!!! YOU ROCK!!), and we're doing everything we should be doing to stop the spread of COVID-19 and to continue on with our lives. 

But it's really hard to be separated from friends and family. It's hard to worry about people, it's hard to have people worrying about you, it's hard to find a balance of self-care and caring for others. It's hard to completely change your work and school schedules, and it's hard to cope with all of this change, especially when we don't know when everything is going to go back to normal, or if everything will ever really be how it was again.

But.

If we can just hang on a little bit longer. If we can just keep doing what we're doing. If we can just try our best, if we can just be mindful of our actions, if we can just come together as a world and just do what we need to do, then we'll be fine. A lot of us will be different. I think as a society that we will have changed, hopefully will have become a lot closer, hopefully will never again take for granted how lucky we are to be alive and struggling through this strange and wonderful life together. But whatever happens, we just need to hang on for a little bit longer, and we'll be fine.

We'll be fine.

Till next time, Type 1 Warriors! Be safe and take care of yourselves.