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Looking back at my freshman year, I realize that putting college before my CF wasn't the first thing I had all wrong. 

Finding a Balance Between CF and High School

After my transplant team said I was too sick to undergo a double-lung transplant, I was determined to get well enough so that I could.

Growing up, I never had any doubts that I would one day go off to college and pursue a career, despite having cystic fibrosis. But when the time came to prepare to attend Marquette University and live on my own in Milwaukee, I knew I would need a plan in order to make my transition to college life as smooth as possible.

As a teacher with cystic fibrosis, I find it no surprise that heading back to school can be a shock to my system. But over the years, I've learned that if I can remember three main things, I can stay healthy through the transition back to school.

After two double-lung transplants my lungs don't have CF anymore, but the rest of me still does. In a very real way, CF isn't "behind me" at all. And that's why I continue to fight. 

During my five months in Denmark for a study abroad program, I not only learned more about myself and others, but I became more confident in my ability to take care of myself. Don't let CF stand in the way of experiencing that, or any other dreams.

I recently attended the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Lung Transplantation Summit. Many of the areas for improvement cited by the experts matched what I have seen as the mother of a two-time double-lung transplant recipient.

Life -- especially when you have cystic fibrosis -- is what you make it. Here is how my CF inspired me to attend law school and helped me get to where I am today.

How do you define passion? For me, it's simple. It's the things that I enjoy, the things that I love and the things that I want to do continuously. However, trying to figure out what those things are is not so simple.