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"How has your journey with CF shaped the problems you want to solve and the impact you hope to have on others?"

When I was a kid, I hated having to take my medications. I hated being trapped in one place; I hated the stares I got when friends came over, and most of all, I hated being left out. While I had to sit on the couch in the living room, going through my treatments, my brother and friends would go outside and play. I could see them through the window, and I remember crying because no one ever wanted to stay to draw with me during my treatment. When I was in first grade, I was hospitalized for about three weeks, and during that time, I felt scared about dying. When I was little, my Mammaw would always tell me about how I was going to die during my teenage years, and I thought that hospitalization was it. As I grew up, my Mammaw never let me forget about my illness, always telling me about her friends who died young with it, and how I should get through school as quickly as possible because of my lifespan. What she never asked me was if I wanted to do that. My education has always been super important to me, especially in science. I started memorizing scientific notations when I was five, for fun, and memorization remains a pastime of mine. Now that I am older, I know that I am going to live a normal life, and I don't live in that constant fear. When I was in sixth grade, I began playing the clarinet, and now, six years later, I also play flute, piccolo, soprano saxophone, and trumpet. My instruments have been my biggest achievement. It proves to me just how wrong people were about me. I have come off of many of my medications, and I am thriving. But I will never forget the fear I felt. Because of that, I want to dedicate my life to genetic editing. My plan for this fall is to go to the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and spend the next four years working on a B.S in biochemistry. After that, I would like to continue on with my master's and get my PhD in Pharmaceutical Science. With that, I want to work on gene editing research. I don't want any child to feel how I did, and I believe genetic editing is the gateway to achieving that.