Diabetes Blog – Happy-Medium.net

I started blogging a little over seven years ago. By that time, Kerri Morrone Sparling had been writing at Six Until Me for nearly seven of her fourteen years.

Saturday, she published her last blog post at that location. While I’m sad that I won’t be able to go there to find something new, I’m also happy for what comes next for Kerri.

People will occasionally ask me about people in the diabetes community, and what they’re like. When I’m asked about Kerri, all I can say is what you read is what you get. Believe it or not, that makes her unique.

I’ve never reached greatness in anything I’ve been involved in, but I’ve been lucky enough to interact with a number of people over the years who were at the top of their field. Nearly to a person, they all differed from who they seemed to be at a distance. In a couple of cases, they were downright jerks.

But Kerri is different. No secret anger hiding just below the surface, no friendly public persona wrapped around a desire to escape from all human interaction. No asking for everyone else to help with everything else while singularly taking credit for a group achievement.

Every time I’ve encountered Kerri, I’ve walked away from our conversation feeling better. That doesn’t happen often, and it happens even less often when encountering someone who has absolutely no incentive to be nice to me.

Kerri, I’ve also learned from you. I have my own style of writing, but I’ve learned how to write about a difficult subject by watching how you did it. I’ve learned how to take being gracious to a new level. I’ve learned how great it feels to do something nice for someone without anyone ever knowing about it.

I’ve been happy to share the internet with you for seven years Kerri, and happier still that you’ve always been more popular than me. Because you deserve it, and because you’re probably better at dealing with the slings and arrows that are sometimes thrown at someone sitting on such a lofty perch.

I’m going to miss reading the remarkable displays of your rapier wit, and the world will be lesser for it. But… I will be thoroughly satisfied with the Kerri that emerges from this transition.

I realize this is all kind of sappy, and kind of suck up, but I promise not to write about this tomorrow. For now though, I think a little gratitude and celebration are in order.

Thank you Kerri… I know that what comes next will be worth waiting for.