Meet the 2024 Scholars

"Describe a defining moment in your journey with CF that sparked personal growth or resilience. How did this experience affect you and what did you learn from this moment?"

The wind had started to carry my tears to the sides of my face as I peered down to see I had been discussing symptoms with my CF care team for over an hour. I clung to the sides of my shirt while I slowly braced myself against the side of one of my college buildings. I remember that day well. I can still feel the panic that set into every nerve of my body when I realized I may be hospitalized while in school. I instantly thought of what would never have a chance to be completed if I needed to leave, or worse: what would happen while I was gone. My fall semester of this year was a constant guessing game when it came to my health, from the hours of calling doctors to the nights consumed by an influx of treatments. I felt a kind of pain I knew only a select few understood entirely. When I was first hospitalized, completing any schoolwork felt impossible because of the continuous rush of anxiety and the overwhelming feeling of pure vulnerability. The fear of going back to the place stood out to me even when I eventually recovered from my infection. My heart began to ache for the 10-year-old girl who realized hospitals would always be a possibility, even with her heart that yearned for education. Until one night when I finally did something that would change the rest of my life. Recently, I was asked why I have always wanted to work with children. The question was answered on somewhat of a default, though it left me pondering up to the time I needed to register for my spring classes. I decided that I would go into nursing school to comfort the ten-year-old girls who feel isolated and defeated when they too are hospitalized. I would aid the adolescents who desire more schooling despite the body they are born with. The passion to learn should never be diminished by the fear of hospitals or illness, because at the end of the day, bodies are bodies; and although nursing school will teach me the importance of the human body, Cystic Fibrosis has already shown me the blueprint for how to be compassionate to children whose minds are bigger than any capability their bodies may or may not have. In retrospect, choosing to go into nursing has proved to me that I can still be the strongest version of myself even in my weakest physical state. As much as I want to serve children with Cystic Fibrosis, I hope that becoming a pediatric nurse despite the fears of hospitals, illness, and vulnerability, I can inspire through my story...just as they have inspired mine.