After nearly a year of blogging, I realized I never explained what "Ring The Bolus" means or how those words came to be. I'm sure many of you have figured out that for me those words mean rising to the challenge of diabetes and giving my all to any obstacle I face but why I chose "Ring The Bolus," as my rallying cry is a different story.
My senior year in college I was playing for my third offensive coordinator and offensive line coach in 3 years. As one of the shortest lineman (5'8") in college football each new Coach meant a new person I had to prove my ability to - A 5'8 offensive lineman sticks out a bit compared to dudes who are 6'3 and 6'4. Coach Walsh had recruited me when I was in high school while he was a GA at Kings but was not too pleased when a shorter than expected player walked into the guidance office. Our historical bad foot made my holding onto my starting position that much tougher.
As the weeks progressed Coach Walsh realized that my love of the game, willingness to sacrifice my body for the team and most importantly understanding and knowledge of the plays was a true asset. We became very close with a mutual admiration developing throughout the season. Walsh's rallying call to the offensive line before each game was "Ring The Bell." Like a fighter ready to go in for 12 rounds of battle he expected us to will ourselves to victory once we stepped across the white lines onto the field.
When I received my diagnosis of diabetes I knew I'd be on the Type 1 field of play for the rest of my life and that it was time to "Ring The Bell," or to fight this disease. To make it a bit more diabetes related I called it "Ring The Bolus." At the risk of sounding cliche when I heard the bell ring for my first workout on April 3rd I knew I'd be going the full 15 rounds (like the great fights of old) against this disease.
4 comments:
Ha! I was right. I always suspected it had to do with ringing the bell in boxing. Putting up the good fight.
Nice idea.
Fighting this disease every way you can is a great way to stay healthy and maybe help and encourage others.
It's spring, how is the 1,000 mile challenge going?
Bernard, so far up to 230 miles this year which will get ramped up considerably over the next couple months; should be at 600 or 700 miles by July.
I always thought of it in phone terms, like you were calling up the bolus for a chat Ed lol. Your version is far cooler though and has great meaning behind it. Thanks for sharing the story.
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