It’s always a unique experience when you travel to a diabetes walk. Why? Because you get a real sense of just how global the epidemic is.

Sometimes we can get caught up in our little sections of the diabetes cause and remain focused on “our” issues be it race, age, type, nationality, or some other “otherness” category and forget that diabetes is affecting us all.  It’s affecting the skinny as well as the obese, the blacks and well as the whites, the young as well as the older, the poor as well as the affluent, the Westerners as well as the Easterners, and the 1s and the 2s.  Yes, there are some MAJOR disproportions that need consideration and attention. However, sometimes, it’s good to bond around 1 common issue: Diabetes.

I had the pleasure of attending a Diabetes Walk with about 95% Indian and Filipino population. I was alone, so it forced me meet people that I might otherwise not chat with. Additionally, it gave me another opportunity to see just how widespread diabetes is from a global perspective.

I had an awesome time, I would encourage anyone to take a break from your macro corner, get out and travel to a diabetes walk in another town or state, enjoy seeing different faces, races, cultures, ages, and types so that you too can be reminded that our fight is bigger than our differences.