This summer, it will be my fourth time going to Friends For Life, an amazing conference for people with type 1 diabetes, run by Children with Diabetes and held annually in Orlando, Florida. It's a great opportunity to meet and make friends with people from across the country, even around the world. Being 16, I'm in the teen group, where I've made several friends over the years, can participate in the teen field trip (to a different, typically Disney, park every year), and can attend the teen dance.
Each year, the conference goes from the Tuesday of the first week of July through the next Sunday. Tuesday is when the majority of people arrive at the resort and check in to their rooms. For me, this first day of the conference usually involves several bear-hugs from and dinner with my friends. It also usually includes staying up almost half the night talking. On Wednesday, I usually get my in-depth eye test done along with my Celiac Disease screening blood work. In the afternoon, the teen sessions begin, the first one being the icebreaker, a time that's supposed to help us, especially the first-times, meet people and make friends, but it's typically just playing weird games with other people. Wednesday night usually celebrates the opening of the exhibit hall, which is a ballroom that has areas/stations set up throughout the week for sponsors and other vendors, many of which give out prizes and other goodies, such as t-shirts, pens, stuffed animals, and gym/tote bags to carry it all in. Thursday brings a full day of sessions, such as girl/boy talk, carb counting, preparing for high school/college, etc. In the evening, is the banquet, a time for the, roughly, 3,000 people who attend FFL to eat dinner together, hear the people behind the conference speak, dance, and even see some famous singers who have diabetes perform. Friday is the day of the teen field trip, when anyone in this group, as mentioned before, can go to a specific theme park for the whole day with their friends. Friday evening is family movie night. Saturday is some sort of family day at the resort pool, but neither my friends nor I have ever partaken in it, so it's more of a free day. Saturday night, however, is the teen dance, a dance very much like normal homecoming, except the majority of people have diabetes. On Sunday morning, the last day of the conference, everyone gets breakfast with their friends in one of the ballrooms. The worst part of FFL is saying goodbye to your friends, especially if they live all the way across the country and there's a very slim chance of seeing them before the next year's conference.
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| My friends for life and I in EPCOT (I'm at the far right) |
Regardless, Friends For Life is an awesome experience, and I can't wait to go again in a few weeks.
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