The excited, joyful person you may have seen on the stage during the Miss America Pageant was not the confused and upset person who had her world turned upside down five years earlier.  Before my diagnosis, I didn’t know what diabetes was.  At first, I was devastated.  I was sure that this condition was going to limit or even make impossible everything that I was working toward and dreaming of. Once I finally recovered from the initial shock of diagnosis and learned more about the disease, I adopted a new can-do attitude, one that was more determined and focused than “pre-diabetes.” In a very real way, diabetes both softened my heart and toughened my resolve. It helped mold me into the person who saw a world of possibilities open up again at the Miss America Pageant in 1998.

Fortunately, I listened to my own heart instead of the well-meaning advice of others who felt that it was not wise to use my newly gained influence to reach the millions of Americans still unaware of the symptoms and consequences of diabetes. My goal is to do my part to educate and rid society of many of the misconceptions that accompany this disease. How many of us have heard over and over again phrases like “Oh, she’s just got a little sugar…” or “If you eat too much candy, you’ll wind up with diabetes…” or “He’s got everything under control, he may not exercise much but he always takes his insulin on schedule.”