I've been planning my future. Now, I realize that such endeavors are often futile and perhaps even foolish...but that doesn't mean I can't have a little fun, does it?
First of all, I will not only acquire an agent for my book, but the agent will make a quick sale, resulting in a complete four-book deal. Now, as this will be my first book, the advance will be minimal. But in a year's time, that book will become a raging success, and my book will require second, third, and fourth printings. The sequels will do better, and so in a few years, I'll have earned enough to buy a new house, paid for entirely out of pocket. Woohoo!
I'll still work, however. After all, I'm diabetic, and no one in their right might would offer health insurance to someone like me, not to mention my family, without being part of an employer's group coverage. But by then, my work will be a hobby, more or less. I won't care about pay raises. I'll be able to software engineer for the fun of it. Novel concept, since software engineering used to be fun at one time in my life. Until it became a job.
I'll have another child, maybe two, and the money that I won't have to pay out for a mortgage payment can be used to pay someone who keep our house clean. My wife will like that.
I don't expect to become rich. I'm realistic, after all. Most authors aren't rich. But, I'll move up into the upper middle class, similar to those with dual incomes. Ryan Bruner will become a household name, and I'll write something really controversial about how the concept of outerspace is really just a government cover-up or something.
The truth is, I don't know what my future will be like. Frankly, I don't even know what my afternoon will be like (although I have a pretty good idea). But what is interesting about my vision of the life ahead of me is that diabetes will remain a part of it until I die.
There is so much hope among diabetics and their parents that there will be a cure. But I just don't believe it. I'm not being negative, either. I'm being realistic. I expect I'll live out the remainder of my life this way, and, truthfully, it doesn't bother me one little bit. (Blue Cross, Blue Shield, however, probably feels differently.)
I can't even imagine my life without diabetes. I'm slightly afraid what that kind of freedom would mean. So, I'd rather hold on to my disease as I plan my future, because even with diabetes, the future, according to me, looks pretty rosey.
