Justin Yates: Lucky To Be Alive!
Justin Yates as young Mr. Palu
November 28, 2017
Type 1
Justin Yates is a senior at Bishop Union High School, and a phenomenal baseball player, despite having some some setbacks throughout life. When Justin was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2008, the doctor told him he was lucky to still be alive. I asked Justin if his life has changed since being diagnosed.
Justin responded,“At first my life was really hard because I was told I couldn’t eat anything, I had to have shots for like everything I ate so it was really difficult, but now it’s been okay because I have like a continuous shot on my body at all times so I can eat whatever I want whenever.”
Justin has to check his blood sugar multiple times throughout the day to see if he needs to eat some food to raise his blood sugar up to what it should be.
Justin says that “The biggest difficulty is getting a low blood sugar while playing baseball or walking around or something then not having juice so it’s difficult because when I get low I have to have juice or something before I can continue.”
Justin always carries juice or a candy bar with him just in case he needs to get his blood sugar up. You would think that some people will change the way they would view a young kid with such a severe disease, but Justin says that “It did not change the way people viewed me. I mean people look out for me if I start to get low but overall they don’t.”
He explains how important it is to treat someone the same even if they have some differences. After Justin graduates High School he plans to attend Chandler Gilbert in Arizona to extend his knowledge and plans to extend his baseball career as well.
Justin will miss all the friends he has made and the great views he can see from his living room. Justin wants to move to Arizona to start new, he’s excited to meet new people and see what the world has for him but he fears being accepted by the new people he meets. Justin plans to pursue a major in administration of justice. After he graduates college he plans to become a law enforcement officer for the NYPD.