#i also had to do a little googling about growing up bilingual since i Did Not so also tell me if anything's wrong there pls

[gentletwin]

Headcanon: Lucas’s mixed heritage and language. ( and a brief aside about ethnicity in Tazmily generally )

Lucas is a quarter Japanese on Hinawa’s side, Hinawa being half-Japanese, half-white. Alec’s wife, Ichika, was full Japanese ( she passed away peacefully a few years before the events of the game ). That being said, Hinawa grew up fully bilingual. Ichika was a proficient English speaker ( well enough to talk to Alec, clearly ), but believed in passing down the language and culture — and, well, as old age began to set in, it just became easier to talk in her native language.

This is the primary reason that Japanese was introduced to Lucas and Claus: to be able to communicate with Ichika in the most comfortable way to her. That, and Hinawa could pass on all her favorite stories, songs, and lullabies to the twins. Not to mention the added bonus of being able to keep secrets from Flint when holidays like father’s day and his birthday rolled around.

Tazmily is mostly English-speaking, so Lucas is a stronger English speaker than Japanese. However, Tazmily is also a large melting pot of ethnicities much like the United States is, seeing as people from all walks of life were on the White Ship. All sorts of people had to be on there in order to keep humanity alive, after all — there’s more than one kind of person in the world, so the Nowhere Islands had to reflect that!

That being said, there are other multilinguals in Tazmily, including some other Japanese speakers that Lucas and Claus could practice with. Lucas’s Japanese mental muscles also get some work when Smash tournaments roll around, with several fighters, assists, and staff present who are fluent, some more so than in English, even.

Since English is the primarily spoken language in Tazmily, Lucas is prone to stuttering or making minor mistakes here and there when an opportunity to use Japanese rolls around, but he can hold a basic conversation. Reading is also pretty difficult for him, but he’s learning what he can where he can, mostly because even though he doesn’t have Hinawa to teach him anymore, he wants to try and keep going where she left off.

Lucas’s Japanese personal pronoun is ぼく boku. More often than not, he tends to speak very casually. Shorthand like あんた anta ( a slangier version of あなた anata, “you” ) or めっちゃ meccha ( slang similar to とても totemo, “very/really”) is sometimes used where appropriate ( with friends, for example ). This is a habit he picked up mostly in the three-year timeskip. Though, his speech is generally softer than, say, Claus’s.

[badmuslim-blog1]

Don’t you have a heart?

Oct 4

So I broke it to my Iraqi suitor when he finally spoke to me today about wanting to marry me. He said he’s come to like me. like-like. Which happens to be the same word as love in Arabic. So it was awkward. My first real face-to-face rejection, at 21! it was kinda exhilarating not gonna lie. But also made me feel uncomfortable and kind of embarrassed. But I was prepared for this, I read the room before I even entered the room and I knew what was going on so when he asked me to think about it first I was able to say I already had, plenty.

I knew going into this that I was a catch, the pick of the litter, a purebred of sorts. Educated, born in a reputable, clean country. Canadian citizen, bilingual, *cough* green card *cough*. Yeah, I’m pretty sure we have a bad case of de ja vu going on here. Let me explain.

My mother is an Iraqi woman who migrated with her family during the war and eventually landed in a Canadian town, going to Canadian schools and one day was married off to my father by her father. He was living in Iraq and upon their union he moved to Canada, worked as a taxi driver, making mad money. Nothing he ever cared to spend on his actual immediate family, penny pincher was an understatement. All the while he would periodically return to Iraq to send money and gifts to the family back home as well as setting up business’, buying real estate, cars, making money there as well. Investing big Canadian bucks within an Iraqi economy went a hell of a long way. Until finally I supposed he decided he didn’t want to return to his Canadian life and had milked quite enough out of it so he decided to leave behind his four kids and wife to return HOME. He then pretended to be mentally ill, riddled with “dark magic” for 7 years he didn’t contact us, didn’t call or email. I’m not supposed to know this but he even got himself a second wife and I’m sure some more kids. Until we came to Iraq for a family vacation, seeing my mom’s side of the family as well as visiting religious shrines. Seeing his 3 daughters all grown up, one ripe and ready to pick, of course, he wanted to pawn me off and make use of me the same way my mother was used. Deliver one of Iraq’s great minds, a worthy educated, pretty boy, someone in the family of course, to the land of success, and recognition. The place where his children and most importantly sons would be birthed into greatness.

Lol, as-if.

So back to the suitor, he’s my cousin. Which isn’t a big deal if I’m being honest, biologically speaking there’s a whole lot of stereotyping and stigma that doesn’t hold. Anyways, he’s cute, smart, charming, successful whatever but I knew what he was after before my eyes finish checking out his chevy. He wants out of this country, even it’s citizens recognize it as being a trap, void of opportunity and progress. He really thinks he can charm me into giving him an out to all that at the expense of my own freedom. No. He thinks he can trick me into thinking I won’t be giving up anything by marrying him.

Ever since the talk where he told me he likes my values and personality and like-liked me he’s been calling me things like “lover”. At first, with his accent, I thought he was saying “my liver”. I was mildly concerned about what could be wrong with his liver. When I realized what he meant I just felt nauseous. Grossed out, creeped, appalled, insulted, cheap, disregarded, disrespected, all of the above, take your pick. Please tell me how one goes from being rejected after saying “I love you, wanna marry me”, to thinking it appropriate to using pet names, using words like “sweetheart”, “lover”, “my love”. Was I just not mean enough?? I clearly need to be more direct, I thought when he asked me if I had a heart after I continuously told him no that he got the picture. Apparently not. Now he’s trying to love bomb me into submission! Into giving in and becoming his wife. The most frustrating thing about the entire ordeal was-is my inability to proficiently deliver my feelings of disdain and woe in Arabic. Unfortunately, my Arabic vocabulary is a third of the size of my English one.

I Just might google translate this post and send it to him. :) If only Iraq’s government wasn’t so shit and they weren’t currently censoring everything from Google, to Facebook, to Tumblr to dictionary.com right now :’)

*2 days later*

So today I had enough, after a full day of, well, sexual harassment I was ready to blow. I thought this vet guy was more put together than this, I thought he was above Iraq’s grossest primal male habits of harassing women, in the streets and in close proximity but I was wrong. Now granted I do recognize part of this epidemic they have going on in this country is due to heavy gender segregation. Men don’t know HOW to respectfully treat women, they don’t know when a woman is not responding positively, is giving dirty looks, is turning their back, ignoring, and walking away from you and your advances, it means she DOESN’’T  like it and you should stop. Plus they’re not used to being told no, being rejected to their faces, by women no less. However, that is no excuse, nor proper justification. I’ve felt utterly uncomfortable, unsafe, and violated multiple times in the past two days. From having this man attempt or feign touching me multiple times, swiping my glasses from my head, getting too close as I literally take strides in the opposite direction of him over and over again. To cringing at every inappropriate disgusting and demeaning name he throws my way. “3ainy”, my eye, “lover, “my love” all seemingly harmless and light but dripped acidly, densely, heavy with the weight of a brick, being slugged my way. This is sexual harassment people. And oh did I tell him.

At the end of the day, I asked him to see me outside because we needed to talk. This was no movie or romance novel where some white knight was going to pop out of the bushes and ask me if this guy was bothering me. No one was going to save me from the situation I was in. Ironically the vet used that as a selling point, saying if I were to chose him he would help me and be my support in anything I needed, making sure I would be able to go back and finish my studies whether my parents allowed it or not. If I was a weaker naive individual I may have crumbled at that, and sold my soul to the devil but I’ve come too far to give in now and fall in tow 10 steps behind a man for a favor. No one was going to save me but myself, this is my burden, my trial, my obstacle to overcome and grow stronger from. If I don’t end up dead in the back of some creeps cab of course.

The fact that he was smiling, pleased with himself indicated to me that he truly believed his actions the past few days had gotten him somewhere. He really thought that he was harmlessly flirting with me and didn’t understand the damage he was really doing to me and to his chances. It was time for me to tell him that I had thought more about it like he had asked and I hadn’t changed my mind. I exploded on him and he was definitely not expecting it. I don’t suppose men usually get these talks here, I mean it even took me a while to see the signs and understand the situation I was in. At first, I was wondering if I had said or done anything to make him think his behavior was acceptable but it wasn’t. And that’s never really the case when it comes to sexual harassment. That’s what makes it sexual harassment. I explained to him that that is what his behavior is called back home and he had proved me right in saying there are certain things within Iraqi men, instinctual things that the people who are born here tend to do, things within their nature that I could never be tied to. He thought he was different but he really wasn’t, and any hint of doubt I may have had about my initial decision was gone. No matter how many promises to change he made, any change one makes within themselves has to be purely a selfish one, something they want to do for themselves, their own decision, not for someone else, those just don’t hold. The universe made this one easy for me, gave me an extra push in the right direction. And I’m grateful.

Since the talk, he hasn’t repeated said actions, I think he’s just been trying to save face a little, being a prideful man and all. Trying to show he’s actually a good guy and all. I mean he did end up apologizing. That’s not going to stop me from returning the medallion he gifted me with a slip of paper that says “sexual harassment” in the box. In truth I really just want him to look up the word and educate himself about it because he’s not a bad guy, just made some fatal errors.

[davidcdelreal]

15 Ways to Make Money in College

.sidebar-primary { top: -200px !important; }

Memories of college include eating beef ramen noodles by the case in order to save a few bucks. Here are some great saving money tips that can help, other than filling up on noodles!

I was fortunate that the Army National Guard paid for most of my tuition plus my mall job of selling vitamins and protein powders at GNC helped with my bills, yes I had debt, but just like me, you can pay your debt off too!

Despite this I always felt broke. Scratch that, I was broke! I was always looking for ways to make extra money in college. Oh how I wish articles like this existed back then!

Even if you have your finances carefully planned in advance, sooner or later you’re going to find yourself needing ways to make money fast to get you through college.

I’m going to recommend some money making methods that are more entrepreneurial than job-related.

15 Ideas for Making Money while in College

Drive for Uber

Tutor

Babysitting

Freelance Writing

Create Videos for YouTube

Do What You’re Good At

Becoming a Sports Referee

Mow Lawns

Housesitting

Be a Virtual Assistant

Blog!

Bartending/Serving in a High End Restaurant or Club

Become a Handyman

Help Out at the College

Take Online Surveys

The problem with holding a job in college is that they typically pay no better than minimum wage, which forces you to work long hours that cut into your study time.

I’m also not going to recommend some of the standard make-money-in-college ideas, like donating blood or selling on eBay. There are so many more creative ideas to choose from than those.

Instead, I’m going to make recommendations that can play into your natural talents, provide you with a flexible schedule, and hold the potential to earn a lot more money than a minimum-wage job. And some of them even have the potential to grow into businesses that you can continue after graduation.

Good deal? Check these out…

1. Drive for Uber

Have a nice car? Put it to good use and drive for Uber.

Uber is a company that connects riders with drivers – and drivers with riders! Uber allows riders to request a ride from their smartphone. That’s when you, the driver, get a notification letting you know there’s someone that needs a ride.

You can track how much you earn as a driver through the Uber app, and best yet, you can set your own schedule. So, if you’re in college and meet Uber’s qualifications, this is a great opportunity for you. Learn more about how to become an Uber driver by visiting our post.

You might also want to try driving for Lyft, a similar company.

Either way, you can make quite a bit of money as a driver for these services. Just make sure to check your local regulations to ensure you can operate as a driver in your area.

2. Tutor

Being a tutor can be especially lucrative in a college community. This is because you will be able to provide your services not only to college students but also to local high school and elementary school students. In many markets, you can earn at least $30 per hour.

Another advantage is that the subject areas you can cover are pretty broad. The greatest demand is usually for math and science, but you can also tutor in writing and reading, as well as history and soft sciences. If you’re bilingual, you may even be able to tutor in languages, or with English as a second language.

Tutors don’t typically require any kind of special education or licensing. You can market your services through the various departments around the campus, as well as local high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools. A simple flyer showing your subject areas, geographic range and a personal description can do the job. You can also include your hourly fee, but that can work for or against you, depending on how competitive your fee is compared to what others are offering.

In addition to high pay, you can have control over your work schedule, as well as where it is you will commute to (services are generally provided at the student’s home, but you can also arrange to do it in school or at an agreed-upon neutral site). Still another advantage is that the work runs with the school year, so you’ll be free over summer vacation.

Tiffany Alexy of DivvyInvestments.com tutored while in college. In fact, she tutored two kids in Spanish and three brothers in Chinese! How much did she make? $15-$35 per hour. Not bad it all! It pays to use your skills (in this case, knowing multiple languages) to tutor others.

Pauline Paquin of ReachFinancialIndependence.com also tutored while in college, teaching Spanish and English and earned around $30 per hour. Pauline also put her musical abilities to good use and taught piano for $40 per hour. $40 per hour!

3. Babysitting

As ordinary as this sounds, it can actually work quite well for college students. This is because babysitting often involves long periods of low- or no-activity, such as when the kids you are sitting are doing homework or have gone off the bed. The benefit is that this downtime will give you time to do your own homework. In can seem as if you’re getting paid to do your homework, which is no small advantage.

Pay is generally in the $10 and $12 an hour range, but you can get more for special occasions, and sometimes even collect tips over and above regular pay. And since babysitting gigs usually happen on an as-needed basis, you won’t have a grueling schedule to keep. That can make the work easy to blend with your school schedule.

There are many ways to get babysitting gigs. One place to start is care.com – a site that helps connect families with caregivers, which can include childcare as well as elderly care. 

4. Freelance Writing

There are tens of thousands of blogs and websites on the Internet, and many of them need content on a regular basis. If you like to write, have good writing skills, and have command of one or more topic areas, you can earn money writing articles on the web.

How much you can earn will depend upon how much time you put into the venture, as well as the types of sites that you write for. On the blogging side, you can earn anywhere from $30 to well over $100 per article. Business websites may pay even more, particularly for writing on technical topics or creating marketing copy.

You can sometimes find work writing for agencies, but the pay per article is much lower than the numbers quoted above. The best way to find clients, particularly those who pay a decent amount, is to approach those clients and websites directly. This will also provide you with the ability to choose the specific sites and topic areas that you want to write about.

5. Create Videos for YouTube

This can be excellent venture if you are creative and have a flair for capturing what’s unusual, interesting and fun. If you can, you may be able to create videos that can generate a steady flow of views, and earn advertising revenue as a result.

This isn’t anything like a job or even providing a service, but more like a business. You create videos, put them on YouTube, set them up with Google AdSense (much as you would with a blog), then earn income as people view your video, and click on the ads displayed.

Should your videos draw thousands of viewers, the income can be steady, providing you with a regular monthly income from the ads. This will require that you produce multiple videos, since some may be popular, while others may go nowhere. But if one or more of your videos goes viral and draws hundreds of thousands of views, ad revenue can be substantial.

The disadvantage is that you may need to produce several videos before you generate a steady income. You will also need to create fresh videos as existing ones fade. But an unexpected bonus is that success in this venture could translate into a profitable business both now and after graduation.

6. Do What You’re Good At

We’re talking mostly about the Internet here. College students are often more savvy in navigating and using the web than most of the rest of the population. For example, along the way you may have become quite accomplished in regard to social media, graphic design, creating websites, or creating videos. Any one of these skills could be sold to both businesses and individuals with the potential to produce a large income.

Pick your specialization, see what others are charging the same services, then set your fees a little bit lower. Many businesses and individuals are looking for someone to handle special projects for them, and being able to do that at a low fee can often get you business.

Once you get a few projects going, and you are getting repeat customers, you can look into increasing your fees. But your primary purpose at the beginning will be get some paying clients. This is another business venture that could mushroom into something more serious after graduation.

7. Becoming a Sports Referee

Virtually every community has a network of recreational athletic leagues, and they all need referees for their games. If you played any sports when you were growing up, you could be a referee for any of them at the local level. And since sports are seasonal, it will be to your advantage to be prepared to referee for sports that cover different seasons. For example, you might referee basketball in winter, baseball in spring and summer, and soccer or football in the fall. That will keep you busy year-round.

Referees are typically paid a flat fee per game. You might earn anywhere from $20-$50 to referee a single game. The lower age groups that play shorter games (maybe 40 to 60 minutes) will be on the lower end of the pay scale, while the higher earnings will come on longer and more competitive games played by older kids. It may even be possible to eventually work your way up to where you are refereeing for high school games at higher rates of pay.

Since so few people want to be referees in amateur sports leagues, there are usually plenty of openings. No formal qualifications are usually required, other than your own knowledge of- and experience with- the sport, though some leagues may require completion of a first aid course of some sort.

Once you sign up to be a referee in a league, you are added to the rotation. Games will be assigned based on your availability, and will generally take place on weekends. If you love a sport or two, becoming a referee is a way of turning your passion for it into a source of income.

8. Mow Lawns

If you’re in college and have access to a truck, a lawn mower, and an edger, make use of those tools and mow lawns!

This is a fantastic business for college students living in sunny areas where the grass grows quickly. And, because grass grows faster during the summertime than any other season, you’ll be able to run your yard maintenance business while you don’t have any classes.

At this job, you’re going to have to be fast and skilled. There is a lot of competition out there, so make sure you do a great job for your clients, be polite, and throw in some extras like weeding or blowing off the walkways.

You’re probably not going to need a business license for mowing lawns, but be sure to check with your local government to see if you do.

You might be able to get $100 per month for weekly service. Let’s say that you do. If you mow a residential lawn and it takes you an hour, that means you’re making $25 per hour – not including preparation or driving time. That’s not bad at all.

Try mowing lawns to make money in college. It’s worth giving it a shot.

9. Housesitting

Summertime is also a great season to do some housesitting for folks vacationing at the beach (or wherever else they are). There are a few reasons why people want someone to housesit. Let’s explore them.

First, many people want someone to watch their house because they actually want them to watch their pets! Many pets don’t go on vacation (like cats), so they’ll need their litter box cleaned, water dish filled, and food dish filled on a regular basis. Sometimes this means coming at least once per day.

Second, some people like the idea of having someone they trust monitor the house for security purposes. While they probably won’t expect you to bust out your ninja moves on intruders, they will expect you to call them, the police, or the fire department should something suspicious or dangerous happen.

Some homeowners simply want someone to take care of the pets and monitor the home. If they’re cool with it, you can even do some studying for classes while you’re housesitting.

This job probably won’t pay very well if you look at it from the perspective of an hourly rate, but remember, you’re probably not doing very much while you’re there anyway.

Let people know you’re available to housesit by posting about it on bulletin boards at community centers and tell your friends and family.

10. Be a Virtual Assistant

Virtual assistants help business owners get more stuff done. What makes a great virtual assistant? Here’s what you need to know.

Great virtual assistants are fantastic at organization. They live and breathe it every day. Just about aspect of their lives are organized, and believe it or not, many successful entrepreneurs need the help of virtual assistants to keep everything going in the right direction.

The tasks a virtual assistant might help with might include but aren’t limited to:

Organizing a business owner’s calendar.

Managing virtual employees or freelancers.

Maintaining a business task list.

Orchestrating speaking engagements, meetings, or events.

Completing research on behalf of the business owner.

Reminding the business owner of their schedule to keep them on task.

These are just some of the main ways a virtual assistant can help. But there are others.

Virtual assistants are often skilled writers, designers, or tech experts. Sometimes they help lend their skills to build something online for the business owner.

Truly, how you define yourself as a virtual assistant matters. Seek out your very best skills, advertise them, and see what happens.

11. Blog!

Yes, you can make money blogging. If you would have asked me years ago if you could, I would have probably said no way. But today? Yeah, I would believe you.

That’s because I’ve found tremendous success with blogging. I believe you can make money blogging, and while it may take you several months or years to see results, it’s a fun and rewarding experience.

If you can write, and you’re passionate about a topic, you can blog. WordPress is a popular blogging platform you can use to create a free blog. If you want to host the website yourself, you’re probably going to have to pay a few bucks, but it’s worth it.

If you’re going to make money blogging, you have to have great content. Whatever you do, don’t write just for the sake of writing or earning money. Produce content that you can be proud of and will help other people.

It helps to get the advice of some other bloggers before you start. Study their tactics and discover what worked well for them. The most important tip I can give you is to never stop learning. Search engines are continually updating their search algorithms which in turn affects your website traffic. And, your website traffic affects your ability to earn money.

The other great thing about blogging? You can do it anytime, day or night. Many jobs require you to be at a certain place at a certain time. As a blogger, you can be anywhere there’s an internet connection and write anytime. It’s one of the most flexible jobs available.

So, if you aren’t pressed to make a lot of immediate income, and you like the idea of being free to work whenever it fits with your schedule, then blogging might be the ticket.

By the way, if you’re into finance and you want to blog about it, I encourage you to attend the Financial Blogger Conference. There, you’ll learn from top bloggers and financial experts about the topics that interest you. Why take the long road when you can attend a conference and learn from the best?

12. Bartending/Serving in a High End Restaurant or Club

You probably have a good idea as to what bartenders and servers do, so I won’t spend any time on that. However, the type of establishment you work in will have a huge impact on how much money you earn. High-end establishments typically come with much higher tip income, while those on the lower end could be no better than minimum wage.

Bartending and serving can also be a good way of blending your social life, at least if you work at establishments that your friends frequent. It also has the benefit of paying daily (or more likely, nightly), since most of your pay comes in cash tips.

The downside is that you may find yourself working when everyone else is out relaxing or playing. For example, dinner shifts tend to be the best for servers, and weekends are generally better paying for bartenders. The work can be tough, but you can probably make more money working two or three shifts per week than you could working for five days a week in a minimum-wage job.

Bartending may require that you complete a bartending course, though there generally are no formal requirements for a server.

13. Become a Handyman

Are your friends always calling you up asking you how to fix this or that? Do you have more tools than your local hardware store? You just might be a handyman – why not put your skills to good use?

You can do all kinds of jobs as a handyman, including but not limited to: plumbing jobs, construction jobs, woodworking, and much more. Some of these jobs you might need to be licensed for, so be sure to check with your local government.

Just imagine the possibilities. You might have yourself two career paths to choose from by the time you’re done with college: to continue your handyman business or to follow the career related to your major. The choice will be yours! The more doors you have available to walk through in your career, the better.</p

14. Help Out at the College

Colleges love hiring students to do all kinds of tasks around campus. For example, you might help out with some of the janitorial duties or serve as a secretary or receptionist. You might enjoy overseeing a dormitory or providing security for the college. Make sure to ask your college about the opportunities that are available to you.

Professors also sometimes need help with some of the technical aspects of their jobs. Ask them to see if there’s anything they might need help with. You might help them with preparing slideshow presentations or creating homework documents.

The great thing about working at a college is that they understand you take classes and can’t be in two places at once. You might find the work programs are available after classes and/or on the weekends – exactly what you’re after!

Todd Tresidder of FinancialMentor.com worked a number of jobs for a university to help pay his living expenses. He cooked dinners for a fraternity, spent summertime digging steam trenches, and did other manual labor jobs and major maintenance projects. He used the cash to pay for his books and other expenses. He said working for the university was a fast way to make money because he could live for almost for free during the summer while housing prices were low.

Rachel of AdventuresinMobileHomes.com was hired by her school to take notes in class. These notes would then be repackaged and sold to students. What an excellent idea! Many students aren’t great notetakers, so why not see if your college would be interested in doing this for their students?

If you need to make money in college, don’t be so quick to take a minimum-wage job at a local big-box or fast food joint. Instead, think about what you can do – and what you like to do – and how you can turn that into an income source. That will enable you to both earn higher income, and have greater control of your time.

15. Take Online Surveys

Who wouldn’t want to make some money while you’re sitting on your couch watching Netflix? Sounds like a dream, right? Well, now that dream can be reality. Thanks to the Internet, there are dozens and dozens of ways that you can make money from behind your computer, and working with a survey site is a great way to do that.

There are dozens and dozens of different survey panels on the Internet that you can join. The idea behind these websites is simple. All that you have to do is create an account, and then wait for your invites. You’ll get an invite, you complete a survey, you get paid. Every website is different on how they will pay you and how much you’re going to make for each completed survey. Some sites are going to give you straight cash for every survey, while others are going to offer you points.

You can use those points to redeem for gift cards to transfer them into cash. Each site has different advantages and disadvantages to their program. Instead of wasting hours and hours researching different websites and creating accounts, I’ve done all of that dirty work for you. I’ve reviewed several of the most popular online survey websites and have outlined the pros and cons of each of them.

The post 15 Ways to Make Money in College appeared first on Good Financial Cents.

from All About Insurance https://www.goodfinancialcents.com/how-to-make-money-in-college/

[type2diabetestreatments-blog]

Gathering Round the Diabetes Campfire

New Post has been published on https://type2diabetestreatment.net/diabetes-mellitus/gathering-round-the-diabetes-campfire/

Gathering Round the Diabetes Campfire

For many parents and kids with diabetes, diabetes camp is a saving grace. When everyday life can leave you feeling isolated, diabetes camp provides a comradery and a normalcy to life with diabetes, along with your typical camp experience including arts and crafts, bonfires, late night bunk gossip, and lots of singing!

We bring this up now because it's that time of year again when parents need to start thinking about signing kids up for all kinds of summer camps.

I'm a veteran diabetes camper myself, and I strongly believe that going there — especially during my first and second year of diabetes — was probably the best thing I could have done.

When I was diagnosed at age 8, it didn't take long before my diabetes clinic introduced us to the local diabetes camp, Gales Creek Camp. Since I was diagnosed in January, there was enough time to get me signed up for a session that very summer! This was especially wonderful in my "early phases," because testing blood sugar and taking insulin became so much more routine than it was when I was at home with my concerned parents. Since the staff were trained doctors and nurses, neither my parents nor I had to do any of the thinking. Talk about a vacation!

All diabetes camps are a little different, but the basic principles of a fun camp environment mixed with staff trained in diabetes management makes for a perfect getaway for both kids and parents. I was able to experience camp, spend a week away from my parents, and have fun swimming, hiking, and hanging out with new friends and "cool grown-ups," all while having my diabetes expertly managed. I'd wager that my diabetes control was actually better at diabetes camp because of the constant attention and adjustments from nurses and CDEs who were on-site 24/7.

The support aspect is also crucial. In my experience, some of these kids became very good friends that I spent time with outside of camp. Nowadays with Facebook, it's even easier to keep in touch with camp friends and get the same "real life" support online, too. For many kids, this is their one and only chance to spend so much time with other kids with diabetes. We all know that diabetes can be an incredibly isolating experience, and it can be transformative to finally be among others who are going through the same thing. Diabetes camp was also a great learning experience. For instance, during my first summer at diabetes camp, a fellow camper who had diabetes longer than me, encouraged me to inject insulin into my abdomen (I was sticking to legs only until then). I was terrified of injecting in my stomach because I thought it would tickle! I didn't realize at age 8 that you can't tickle yourself, plus injections don't really "tickle" anyway. But I didn't know that... I watched this girl inject in her stomach, and then bravely did it myself. It didn't tickle. And it didn't hurt! I've been hooked on tummy spots ever since.

Does diabetes camp sound pretty good? In December, we introduced you to Lorne Abramson, President of the Diabetes Education and Camping Association. DECA is a great resource for finding a diabetes camp in your area — and they are all over the country! Not only that, but most of them are reasonably priced, or they provide scholarships for those in need, so there's no reason not to investigate. However, many summer camps book up early, so it's important to investigate and apply for camp asap. You don't want to wait too long, especially for very popular camps or camps with limited spots.

Is your child shy? Unsure about sending your child away for so long? Some camps have "family weekends" or "day camps" where your child is exposed to camp life in small bursts or with you alongside. It's a great way for both camper and parent to get used to the idea.

For those of you who have hit college age and are suddenly being booted out of diabetes camp, DECA has recently launched D-treats, a series of weekend retreats for young adults with diabetes. This year, they are hosting three D-Treats, in New York, Utah and Ottawa, Canada. Info is still TBD, so you'll want to "like" their Facebook page to keep in the loop.

The United States and Canada aren't the only countries with diabetes camp, although the concept may look different depending on which country you're in:

One camp in Mexico is called Diabetes Safari, and it invites kids ages 7 to 18 to come to Oaxtepec for four days. It is a co-ed, bilingual camp in both English and Spanish. The founder of the camp, Dr. Stan de Loach, is a bicultural and trilingual diabetes educator and was one of the first diabetes educators ever certified in Mexico, as well as a clinical psychologist.

Over in Europe, Diabetes UK hosts several "holidays" throughout the year for children with diabetes, which are similar to US-based diabetes camps. Meals are planned and doctors and nurses are provide constant supervision. Camps are based all over the United Kingdom, and include activities like canoeing, kayaking and archery — sounds like fun!

In Germany, there's a camp for teens with diabetes, and also one for youth and young adults sponsored by Bayer and Novo Nordisk. I'd imagine most western countries have something going in this area. If you're looking for a diabetes camp in or near your country, it would be worthwhile to start Googling, and/or ask your local diabetes organization if they have any recommendations.

Diabetes camp was an amazing experience for me growing up, and I'm wondering: Who else has gone to diabetes camp? Or do any of you have concerns about it? Please talk to us.

Disclaimer: Content created by the Diabetes Mine team. For more details click here.

Disclaimer

This content is created for Diabetes Mine, a consumer health blog focused on the diabetes community. The content is not medically reviewed and doesn't adhere to Healthline's editorial guidelines. For more information about Healthline's partnership with Diabetes Mine, please click here.

Type 2 Diabetes Treatment Type 2 Diabetes Diet Diabetes Destroyer Reviews Original Article