If you won the lottery…

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Okay, so the topic isn’t really all that original, but we all think about it sometimes.  I know I do.  I mean, really, what would I do with millions of dollars?  Let me ask that rhetorical question a little differently - what would I do with millions of dollars AFTER I blew some of it on stupid stuff?  Like most people (not all, mind you, just most), I can answer that in one word:  philanthropy.

I’ve always wanted to be able to do a few philanthropic things that are out of the realm of possibilities for someone like me.  I would set up a scholarship fund; actually, I would set up a few of them.  I would create a fund for disadvantaged kids to go to diabetes camp and for their families to go to conferences like the Friends for Life Conference by Children with Diabetes.  I would give a hefty chunk of change to JDRF for stem cell research.  And, I would set up a trust to help some very talented athletes with diabetes achieve their goals. 

The first two things I mentioned are kind of self-explanatory.  The last one, though, is one of those non-mainstream ideas that I’ve mulled over and over since I qualified for Olympic Marathon Trials.  It wasn’t easy - I know that’s a bit of an understatement, but it deserves mentioning again and again, because it wasn’t easy for many reasons.  Reaching that level is difficult, but when you have diabetes thrown into the mix, it’s so much more complex.  I honestly believe that diabetes does not make someone less capable physically, but I do believe that the complexity of managing this disease strikes a blow that can totally disrupt training (and life, too). 

But, it doesn’t have to be that way, which is the main reason I started this website.  I was told so many times that I could not do exactly what I did with running.  Part of that came from the complete lack of knowledge on how to fine-tune diabetes management in the context of a high level of athletic training and competition.  So, I figured it out mostly on my own.  I made mistakes, sometimes really big mistakes.  Why should anyone else have to make those same mistakes?  Well, not on my watch!

So, if I won the lottery, I would be able to be a personal sponsor for athletes with diabetes who are trying to step it up to the elite ranks.  At least the financial hurdle would be moved out of the picture and that’s a huge hurdle when you’re straddling the fence between kind of good and elite. 

For now, I do what I can.  I hope that I can make a difference.  I worry about the athletes that I work with - I mean, like I worry about them all the time!  I want to see them succeed because I feel like I’m right there with them.  And, every time one of them achieves their goals, I feel a bit of the weight lifted from my shoulders - the weight of some 20 million people with diabetes who I feel I can’t let down.  It’s rewarding.  It’s also frustrating because I wish I could do more.  Bob says that I have to remember that I’m not the savior of the world.  Well, maybe not for the WHOLE world, but in this little world of ours, I want to be. 

If you won the lottery, after you went out and blew a bunch on some fun things, what would you do?  Okay, just to make it interesting, here are some of the fun/stupid things I’d blow some change on:  a new 80cc dirt bike, a bunch of junk at Home Goods and Home Depot, landscaping stuff, a new treadmill, a new radio for my car or at least I’d get the CD unstuck, a pair of boots, a couple of really fancy and expensive dinners out with a bunch of friends, paying off my grad school loans … hmm, I think that would do it. 

Happy trails - they’re flooded here because of the deluge we’ve had (I think we’re at almost 4 inches of rain in the last couple days),

Missy