I was diagnosed at 11, in grade 5 at a small rural school (73 kids, 6 boys & me in my grade) and got bullied constantly by younger students & only a couple of older kids. It also didn't help that my last name is Hine & I was the only student who wore glasses.
I remember one day in particular that we were indoors all day because of bad weather and some kids were playing catch in the classroom while I was working on a project. The ball hit the edge of the table and landed underneath, right next to my foot. I leant down to pick it up & throw it back & they all started yelling at me not to touch it because they didn't want to catch my diabetes. And if it wasn't yelling about being contagious, I was ignored except by the boys in my grade.
I also did dance classes once a week & because I was diagnosed in the middle of dance term & missed one class, when I got back our instructor was the only one who communicated with me, at the end of year concert, trophies were awarded to every single student at the school. Except me, because I was in hospital and missed one class. I quit dance after that.
Things didn't improve when I went off to high school either, over 1000 kids there 170 in my year level, and because I had a hypo on my first day I was again bullied for being different, never mind the fact that there were at least two others in my year level who also had diabetes, they were immediately inducted into the popular group & also picked on me. I never knew what a true friend was until my final year when I finally joined a drama group (never joined anything because of my fear of being ignored and bullied by other people in the group after the dancing thing)
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