Volume 124 Issue 84
kansan.com
Friday, January 27, 2012
Tapas on Mass seeks to offer unique flavor on busy street PAGE 3
SPEAK
The first sign I had that something was wrong was when I was 15 and a sophomore in high school.
While getting ready for school, I blacked out in the shower at my house and woke up with a massive headache. The water was still streaming over me as I sat up wondering what the hell just happened. After several minutes of sitting in the bottom of the shower, I snapped out of
my daze, got out, and crawled back to bed. I stayed there all day instead of going to school. Little did I know the next day would change my life forever.
I still felt like crap, but attempted to tough it out at school the next day. My English teacher, Ms. Nunley, knew something was wrong when she saw me. I was pale and missing about 20 pounds that disappeared before I returned to school. She followed me into the hallway after I asked to get a drink. "Chris, are you feeling all right?" she said. "You look like you've lost a lot of weight." I told her I was fine and that I just needed a drink of water, but she didn't buy it. She forced me to go to the nurse. From there, I went to
my doctor and was then on my way to the hospital with Type 1 diabetes, which, according to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, 15,000 children and teens are diagnosed each year.
A few hours after being sent to the nurse, I was checked into a room at Wesley Medical Center in Wichita. The doctors were having a hard time figuring out how I wasn't in a coma with my extremely high blood sugar. The average person's blood sugar ranges from 70-150; mine was 921, which means the cells in my body weren't getting the sugar they needed for energy and were devouring my fat and muscles like a microscopic version of Pac Man. Eating real food was not an option, so I was given a steady diet of ice chips whenever I was hungry. Eating at this point would have just thrown more sugar into my bloodstream, making my condition even worse. The ice chips, along with 15 bags of saline, were acted like a system flusher to help bring my blood sugar down.
When I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, I had no clue what it was. But I later found out that it's a genetic disease when your pancreas stops making insulin. Imagine your cell as a door and the insulin as a key and diabetes is like losing that key. Without the key, your cells can't obtain sugar and will devour everything they can find until you die. How I managed to get this disease is still a mystery in my family. Nobody on either my mom or dad's side can figure out who had it. It's as if it popped up out of thin air and now I'm stuck with it.
For me, this means I have to inject insulin five to six times a day and have to check my blood sugar by pricking my fingers. I even have to be able to look at a plate of food and know how much insulin I'm going to need for that meal. I used to have to look up all of my food in a book that the hospital gave me to see how much insulin is required for each food item, but now I can just eyeball it and take what I think is the right amount. Trust me, it sucks.
After I was discharged from the hospital, depression rapidly set in. I began to feel like I couldn't go anywhere without being looked at like some monster. I felt the need to hide myself when taking my medication just to keep others from staring at me like some drug addict. I had this feeling that the world and even God was against me. I know now that I was being completely close-minded and assumed
way too much about what others thought, but can you blame me? For the first few months, I stared at the walls in my room repeating questions like "Why me God?" and "What did I do to deserve this?" I had thought that having this disease was worse enough, but I didn't think how it would affect my family until I had low blood sugar late one night.
I had never said anything bad to my parents, but that changed when I woke up one night and had to deal with low blood sugar. When experiencing low blood sugar, you tend to get really agitated and can only think about stuffing your face to get rid of the weird feeling. All I can remember is me telling my mom "Until you have been through the shit I've had to go through, don't act like you know me or anything about me." I quickly realized the severity of my words when my dad ran downstairs to confront me. He said "what did you say to my wife?" The night ended with my parents and I sitting in their room as I cried my eyes out talking about how much I hated my life because of this disease.
After that night, I decided I couldn't go on like this. From that moment on, I simply decided to stop caring about what others think anymore. I had let my assumptions of what I believed people thought of me consume my head and it was dragging me down. It took some time, but I eventually convinced myself to take the "shit happens" approach to life. I was done dwelling on how my life was supposed to be and told myself to get over it.
Having diabetes has taught me how to confront my problems and how to deal with them. Now, when a problem comes up, I just see it as another thing I need to deal with as opposed to freaking out like I would when I was first diagnosed. The most important thing I've learned from having this disease is responsibility. I have to take my medicine every day and at certain times. If I don't, I could lose my eyesight, my feet, my hands, my arms, and I could even die. When you have those kinds of consequences, you force yourself to be responsible.
So, in the long run, this disease developed my coping skills. Now I just roll with the punches and I no longer blame God. And in a sense, I'm kind of happy about it. Don't get me wrong, having to take six shots a day really sucks, but in the grand scheme of things, it's made me a stronger person.
lenges during her first semester, a challenge that many new students face.
"I wasn't meeting people," she said. "I was kind of going through people withdrawals."
Determined to overcome her situation she turned to the Internet. Jankord began to scour through blogs and websites in search of a solution to her problem. Her search first brought her to the 365 Project, an initiative in which participants take one photograph each day for an entire year.
"A lot of people I knew were doing the 365 Project so I decided to do something more original," she said.
Relentlessly, she continued to search until finally she came across something that was new to her and grabbed her attention.
Unlike the 365 Project,100 Strangers is a project that requires socialization. The first objective of
"People have told me simple things, like how they skipped class," Jankord said. "An elderly couple that I met by Potter Lake told me their life story."
The second half of the project is taking the photo (with permission) of the strangers who shared their story. While meeting new people and collecting the stories of strangers was appealing to Jankord, it was the second half of the project that intrigued her most of all.
She had hoped to be admitted to the School of the Arts to study photography, but was declined. 100 Strangers became an opportunity for her to pursue her love of art as well as to build confidence and overcome the difficulties of meeting new people.
"This project stood out to me because I wanted to do something that involved photography," Jankord said.
Setting out and onto campus
most people were more than willing to talk about themselves.
"I think what she's doing is pretty courageous, daring." Teron Gaumer said after sharing a story with Jankord and becoming one of her strangers.
Often times it is this fear of rejection that stunts our bravery and keeps us from meeting new people. Overcoming her nerves, Jankord has continued to collect strangers and has now documented the photographs and stories of nearly twenty strangers.
"It was when I got my first rejection that I first got nervous," she said.
She remembers not being very nervous in the beginning.
"It really helped me out get there and meet people," she said.
Jankord is not the only student on campus participating in the project.
Baffa, much like Jankord, began the project as a way to grow as a photographer and to break out of social timidity.
"In day to day life you walk past so many people and you just have a brief encounter, you don't even notice them," he said. "Now I'm stopping people and getting to know them and it's interesting because they're often a lot more friendly than you would think."
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CROSSWORD 4
Collin Baffa, a senior from
According to the 100 Strangers page on Flickr, there are currently more than 7,000 participants.
CRYPTOQUIPS 4
OPINION 5
online community where people encourage you and you can learn from them."
For more information about 100 Strangers, including portfolios of the project's participants, you can visit www.100strangers.com and www.flickr.com/groups/100strangers.
TYLER BIERWIRTH/KANSAN
Kody Collins, a sophomore from Overland Park, enjoys a non-alcoholic White Russian while dressed in character as "The Dude" during The Big Lebowski night at laybow on Thursday. Students enjoyed free popcorn and bowling while watching the movie.
Edited by Anna Allen
SPORTS 8
SUDOKU 4
contents, unless stated otherwise, © 2012 The University Daily Kansan
Don't forget
They've got shoes, but if you've got your own, bring 'em. Cosmic bowling at 10 p.m at the Jaybowl in the Union.
see page 2A.
Forcasts done by University students. For a more detailed forecast
Break out those wellies!