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? "

It was a crisp weekday in the fall of 2017. I ran off the bus and into my mother's arms, completely letting go of the days' worth of tears that had been welling up; my secret was out. To put this in context, a couple days prior was the best day of my life- I was granted a Make a Wish through the Make a Wish Foundation. I was gifted a personal man cave decorated with everything I could have imagined and more. What didn't I know? That my town newspaper's front page would have a picture of me and go into detail about my diagnosis of cystic fibrosis and the backstory that qualified me for the wish. While I had been diagnosed since age 3, only my close friends and family knew. I was a teenager who just completed middle school and was new to high school. I was trying to fit in with the rest of my friends, not wanting to be known as the "sick kid" or different from the rest. I was masking a crippling anxiety that cystic fibrosis would be a negative defining trait. My mother called the local newspaper to see whether they could remove the story, but it was already printed and delivered. Little did I know, that day crying in my mother's arms would change the way I viewed myself, my diagnosis, and ultimately serve as a defining moment helping to rebuild my foundation and enable me to grow into who I am today. I knew I had been blessed with the opportunity to receive a wish, which had come together through countless donations from dozens of people and hours of labor from my wish granters. I had the coolest hangout space of all my friends. As I began to have people over to enjoy the space with me, it was the first time I realized that my circumstances aren't what define me, nor did my friends think so. There was no need to hide this part of my life; it's part of who I am, and I cannot be more grateful for the lessons and resiliency that living with a chronic disease has taught me. I can confidently say I am more comfortable in my own skin than ever before, and it took someone else exposing my biggest insecurity for that to happen. Today, as a junior attending the University of Southern California, I am the president of the USC chapter of Make a Wish and work in collaboration with Make a Wish Greater Los Angeles to share my story with donors at fundraising events. Besides family, I have gained an army of added support from my peers who have been there for me in all my hardships since. Could I go without the treatments, sickness, hospital visits and medications? Yes. But could I envision another version of myself without a journey filled with hard discussions, self-reflection, vulnerability, openness, resiliency, and commitment to service work and giving back? Most definitely not.