The Idea of an Essay, Volume 2

31 wonderful and powerful new passion within me that summer. I never had the time to read any of the books while at the hospital because thankfully I was released after one day. In that one day, I was bombarded with a multitude of information about this new diagnosis of type 1 diabetes. Then I was sent home having to put all this information into practice immediately. I had to learn and live a completely new lifestyle. Despite this overwhelming experience, I knew my summer was now free for me to do anything I wanted. I did not sign up for any camps; I was not going to do summer reading homework. I was going to simply sit down on my couch at home and read this borrowed book: Pride and Prejudice . It was about the time when my family and I returned home from the hospital that my eyesight started deteriorating. For about two weeks or more, my whole vision was fuzzy. The doctors said it probably resulted frommy dramatic blood sugar change. My glucose levels were so high for so long that my body had adjusted to the new level. Now that the levels were back down to normal, my body had to readapt which caused this strange blurriness of vision. I could still see people, but it was like I was wearing glasses with horribly unclear lenses. Basically, I couldn’t read anything. So, my plan to read for relaxation did not work out as I had intended. However, I was firmly determined to get through this book. I ended up buying a set of Jane Austen’s novels on CD. Every time my mom and I were in the car together, we would listen to the CD, hearing the different characters being played out through different voices. I was finally able to “read” like I wanted. After about two weeks, my eyesight came back to me— clear once again. I began to actually read the pages of this Jane Austen book, soaking in the words of the story. By the end of the book, I was in love. I realized how enjoyable reading could be. Back in elementary school, I read a lot, but I lost this passion for reading by my middle school years. Up until my diagnosis, I had not really thought much about reading for fun. But, there was something about all the craziness that was going on that called me back to it. All I had wanted to do for weeks now was read. And so that is what I did. Next, I picked up Sense and Sensibility . It wasn’t long until I finished that one and picked up another one. This progression went on all summer long. My daily position consisted of me sitting on my soft, light brown couch in the reclined position, a red fleece blanket