Katarzyna R.'s Essay

Here I am, an eighteen year old giggly girl. I have brown hair and I’m 5’6”. At first glance, these are the characteristics a stranger would use to define me as your average teenage girl. But start talking to me, and you might hear my slight Boston accent and fast pace voice. Ask me questions, and you could find out that my favorite class is Ethics. Further investigate, and discover I am an outgoing, loud, picky eater, who loves being a neat freak. I have two great dogs named Gunthur and Clara, and am deathly afraid of bugs. At some point, you might also find out that I have Cystic Fibrosis. Because of this, I am also a fighter. The combination of all these traits, and more, is what actually defines me.

I have met so many people in my short life that let the conflicts they are faced with define them. The boy whose dad died of cancer, the gay kid, or the stupid hockey player, these are all labels I have heard people use to classify each other and themselves. However, even the simplest human being is too complex to be characterized by three words, especially for differences they cannot control. For me, having CF might be that difference. But I refuse to be the ‘the sick kid.’ Living with CF has taught me that what defines me is me, and not singly a disease I did not choose to have.