Harford County resident, author taps into her dreams

1. Milton Wright High School alumna Brooke Kregal has recently authored a book she started writing about six months ago. She says she has always wanted to create a book and the hardest part so far has just been starting it. “Once I started it flowed so beautifully.  Of course occasionally I hit creative blocks, but it would just come to me when I was ready,” she says.  

     Kregal explains that it is a children’s book, and it is her as a child explaining what type one diabetes is to her three-year-old son. “I wrote the book to represent children and people with type one diabetes,” Kregal says. She believes a lot of people are “ignorant on what it actually is and what it entails,” so instead of being mad about this she decided to create a book.  

     Kregal implies the book is a straightforward way for children to understand diabetes and how to care for it, she wants it to help kids with diabetes as well as people around them be able to understand what they need. 

     “I grew up in a world where having diabetes was a death sentence and I remember so many times where I would feel like I would never be able to do anything,” Kregal says. She explains now she is doing all these things that she never thought she would have the chance to do as a child.  

     “I wanted to change the way we can betray this disease and figure out a way to coexist because I was sick of the misunderstanding and the ignorance surrounding the disease,” Kregal says. She believes the cost of insulin is “absolutely ludicrous” and she wants to bring more awareness to it so people who really need it can afford it.  

     “I just hope that people can buy the book and educate themselves so that we are understood by more people,” Kregal says. She explains the book is finished and she is just waiting for the artwork to be done and is hoping for it to be able to come out in April 2022.  

     Kregal wants people to know they are just like anyone else; diabetes does not make her different. “It is like the difference between driving a stick shift or an automatic car, I just have a couple extra stops,” she says.  

     “Eating healthy and going to the gym will not cure me, I need insulin from a needle and there is no way to go around that,” Kregal says.  

     “Writing has been amazing for me, it is almost like journaling being able to get it all out on paper it feels like doing yoga for your brain,” Kregal says. Her biggest inspiration throughout this process has been the author Mitch Albom because she loves their work.  

     Kregal hopes people can learn from her book and she is “not looking to represent people, she just wants to coexist and be the same.”