Times Square, NYC is truly the city that never sleeps. There’s a karaoke bar right across the street, where I can hear the brave tourists belting out tunes at the maximum screech their vocal cords can produce at all hours of the night; yet (un)surprisingly, I open my eyes briefly and just fall back asleep as if it were a lullaby. Nothing is surprising or unexpected in this town, especially this part of town. The most normal* people you’ll encounter are panhandlers, and it’s hard to differentiate between the needy and the greedy.

The other day, I saw a panhandler sitting on the floor with a sign. Nothing surprised me more than the audacious expectations with such a baseless line of reasoning. The run-down on the sign was a very unwarranted reason to place yourself in the [needy] category. Why rely on others to “make the difference” when you can make a bigger difference yourself?

To make a long story short; everyone has a story that may or may not be tear-jerking, happy, yawn-provoking, sad, long, exciting, inspirational, short, interesting, true, boring, false, entertaining, etc. Let’s save it for storytelling time, and in the meantime, do something to “make the difference” in your life.

<Note: Diabetes is a medical condition that should be taken seriously, monitored closely, and treated consistently. If managed properly (with healthcare that’s available to everyone, regardless of income), you may live a normal* life with a chronic medical condition.>

*What’s normal is different to everyone, and there’s no concrete meaning behind the use of the word normal.