The seventh-grader at Shaker Heights Middle School was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 5 years old. But Gabe is optimistic about his illness, having raised nearly $7,000 for ongoing research over the last two years through the American Diabetes Association's Tour de Cure. As he comes close to finishing a three-year journey to watch every episode of Star Trek with his father, he's decided he wants to be an astrophysicist when he gets older.
I'm kind of afraid of being an outsider. I like being normal with people. Having diabetes kind of stopped that. I take into consideration something's different about me. I'm not saying difference is a bad thing, I'd just love to be somewhere near normal. I don't really have a specific definition for normal; I just think that normal is being accepted by other people as who you are.
I kind of worry about people's opinion about me. If someone says, "You're an idiot," I'll take that into consideration and be like, "Why would you think that?" and try to be more respectful of that person. I don't really try to be mean to somebody. The only reason I would purposely be mean to someone is if they've been mean to me for years. I don't judge somebody over one experience. I feel like we need to be respectful to everyone no matter who they are, even if they try to hurt somebody.
My relationship with my parents is super strong. We just talk about anything and everything. I love them to death. My parents aren't really strict with curfew. [My friends and I] just realize we don't really want to be out that late. Around Shaker, people have gotten mugged, so we're like, "Oh someone got mugged at gunpoint, so let's not be out late." When I first hear about it, I don't feel safe about it, especially if I know the person.
