A year ago the super-awesome Kim posted a video that kicked off the You Can Do This Project. Her video is below. My thoughts shall follow.

Most of the time I treat this blog as a ‘this is what’s going on in my life’ opportunity. More chronicling the journey rather than taking the time to look back, or look deeper in to what is going on. Every now and then I’ll take a genuine look at the emotional aspects of diabetes, but the moments that I share those discoveries with you all is quite rare. It’s nothing personal…actually, it is personal. And I still have reservations about sharing everything that I think and feel. This blog has done a lot for my emotional well-being, but I still reserve the right to hold back.

Everyone treats their online presence differently and I’m not one to critique internal social media policy but I was quite taken with Kim’s video when I first saw it a year ago. I think Martin Lawrence summed it up nicely:

It’s not that her video gave others permission to be “real” about their diabetes – plenty of other people have been sharing incredibly emotional stories before that. It’s more that Kim created a place where these stories could be shared and more importantly, celebrated.

So here’s to the first year of the You Can Do This Project. Here’s to the contributions that continue to pop up on the blog – http://youcandothisproject.com. Here’s to the conversations happening on Facebook. And here’s to the Micro-Grant that the project is eligible for. If you haven’t voted yet, today (June 15) is your last opportunity.