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CF demands a parent's time, but childhood lessons taught me that all of my children need my love and attention.

Living with cystic fibrosis, your dreams for the future can be a little hazy. But while attending my grandmother's 90th birthday celebration recently, I was struck by an image of myself that I had never seen before: myself in the distant future.

Living with cystic fibrosis is a constant reminder of the things that have been taken from me. I feel like I've made a bargain with the devil, so to speak.

Finding a Balance Between CF and High School

In a culture flooded with advertisements about the perfect body, secret weight-loss tricks and fad diets, our cultural ideals of weight are often skewed to an image that is far from healthy.

When I was 13, my family went from having two seemingly normal kids to two CF patients in a manner of a few short months -- and boy, did it change everything. Because of my late diagnosis, I faced a unique set of challenges that helped make me the strong person I am today.

Time after time, cystic fibrosis has shown me that what I thought was important could change with changing circumstances.

After turning 60, I decided to mark the milestone by creating a “living list,” 60 things I could do to raise awareness and money for cystic fibrosis care.

There are a lot of misconceptions about illnesses. For one, you're supposed to look sick -- or like other people's perception of a sick person. Once I started to doubt myself and the gravity of my illness, I began internalizing a whole lot of guilt.

Watching a Bruce Lee movie inspired me to live my life on my terms.