Diagnosed when he was 12 years old, Adam Elliot has had type 1 diabetes for nearly three years. He is currently a student at All Saints Catholic High School in Kanata, Ontario, Canada. In this article, he shares his experiences of type 1 diabetes and explains how self-management has made his life with the condition not just bearable but as he sees it ‘a real journey that I believe is providing me  with a lot of useful life lessons’.