Trick or Treat

10/03/08 General

I stopped looking forward to Halloween when I was 13 years old. In November of the previous year I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, so I turned away and into myself when the leaves began to fall and talk turned to costumes and candy. It was impossible for me to participate in this holiday.

I was old enough that my false aloofness hung about me naturally. It was an act, though—one of the first “costumes” diabetes has forced me to wear. My friends behaved somewhat similarly, as if Halloween were only for kids and not in vogue with our adolescence. Their guises were much more apparent and dissolved altogether in the week prior to the 31st. They selected costumes and arranged where to meet. I was included, but as a hesitant afterthought.

Once, during the evening, a friend asked if I could eat any of the candy I had amassed. I told him no and he furrowed his brow. “So why did you come?” I gave the only answer I could:

“What else was I supposed to do?”

We didn’t discuss the dilemma again, but my friends weren’t surprised when at the end of the night I asked them to open their bags. I then poured the contents of mine evenly among theirs.

Eric Devine, 30, has lived with type 1 diabetes since he was 12. He lives in upstate New York with his wife and two daughters where he works as a high school English teacher. Devine is an avid writer and is currently seeking publication of two Young Adult novel manuscripts.