Hello, my name is Skyler Kelemen. I am 13, in 8th grade and I have type one diabetes. I was diagnosed when I was 7 years-old and going into 2nd grade. Since then I have worked very hard each day and I think I have been doing great living with T1D. I live with two loving parents and a 12 year-old brother.

In this blog I will be talking about the mandala that I created for a school project. A couple months ago my wonderful art teacher, Mrs. Williams, gave us the assignment to create a mandala out of anything we wanted. I was very excited to create this project because I knew I had to go above and beyond to make it have some meaning to me.

With this goal in my head, I thought about how non-diabetics never really know what truly happens beyond the things they can only see. They can see the tubing that might be sticking out from my shirt or my pump attached to my hip everyday. They can see the dot constellations on my fingers made from the everyday finger pricks. They can see my CGM stuck to the back of my arm. They can see me sucking down juice at the most inconvenient times. They can see what is on the outside.

I wanted to show the struggle that isn’t visible to the eye. I wanted to represent the highs that never seem to go away and keep you up all night, and the lows that make you feel like you are going to pass out. I wanted to represent the sites that have failed over and over and feeling like you are ready to give up, and the everyday needles that we had to deal with when first diagnosed. Lastly, I wanted to represent the fear of having to use your Glucagon lurking inside its red little case. I wanted the viewer to get a deeper meaning of T1D from the mandala than just what they see at first glance. This piece was to show everything that some of us diabetics can’t admit to the rest of you. The secret language that you only understand when you are “part of the club.”

In spite of all the downs of having T1D, my life is pretty great! I am on a travel soccer team with amazing supportive teammates. I am a member of the National Junior Honor Society at my middle school and have made first honors each year. I play the ukulele – Twenty One Pilot songs are my favorite to play. I enjoy drawing, being outside, and doing fun things with my friends and family. T1D is a daily battle, but is one I will continue to fight. We are warriors and life is too delicious to ever stop fighting!

Thank you so much for reading my blog.

Skyler Kelemen