Meet the 2021 Scholars

"Living through a global pandemic with a chronic illness, what is one piece of inspirational advice that you would give to other students with CF who are in the same or similar position?"

It is a frequent occurrence when living with cystic fibrosis to give up on yourself. With the ongoing pandemic like many others my cystic fibrosis journey has gotten much more complicated. One piece of inspirational advice I would give to fellow CF students would be if you are going through a rough patch with your health or the pandemic, do not stop there, keep on fighting. If you arrived at the beach and the entrance was full of rocks and seaweed but the sand closer to the water was fluffy and soft with no rocks in sight you would not stop and put your things down on the rough part of the beach, you would continue on the journey to the nice sand. Our cystic fibrosis journey during the pandemic is so similar to the arrival to the beach I described. In order to get to the enjoyable, loving, and happy part of life we will have to go through the mud, all the restrictions, and rough patch. You have to keep on fighting and not dwell on the uncomfortable part because if you push forward you will end up in the happy part of life once again. It is so important to remember to not give up in the rough patch because you may become stuck there. If we continue to push through this pandemic we will be back to all of the things we love.