Living My Dreams With CF: Happy Birthday To.......ME!!!

This past Saturday I celebrated my 28^th year on this planet! Woo hoo!!! It was a great day surrounded by my beautiful wife and daughter and various other family members. There truly is nothing like spending the day with the ones who love you.

This is how I feel about my birthday and any day for that matter. I guess I would say that my birthday is a little more special than any other day though……….Every day I get to spend on this planet is a blessing. Not one single day is guaranteed and I honestly try to think this way every day I put my two feet on the ground. When you have a disease or an illness it shapes you as a person. You start to see the world differently as you age and mature. To me, I think I matured a lot faster than most people I went to school with.

I have made it 28 years on this planet and there is a reason for that. I learned at a young age that I was ultimately responsible for my own health. As much as my parents would enforce me to do my airway treatments it was up to me to throw on that vest and get them done. Personal accountability was something I learned when I was very young and it has shown that it does pay off. I made my health my life. If it wasn’t for my compliancy to my own health I do not think I would be sitting in the position I am today celebrating my 28th birthday.

I set many goals and dreams for myself and I never let CF stand in the way of any of them. When I was younger in my teens I had dreams just like everyone else. I wanted to graduate high school, attend college, have a career, get married to the woman of my dreams, own a house, and even start a family. When I step back and look at those dreams as a teenager I can honestly say I have seen every single one of those dreams come true. But I didn’t just wake up one day and all of these dreams came true. It has been a journey and a lot of small steps were taken to reach each and every single one of them. There were days full of happiness, sadness, blood sweat and tears but it was in my control for the most part to make these dreams come true. Trust me, I didn’t get my wife to marry me over night!!

I still have many goals and dreams to accomplish and I will be flipping that 28 around in my lifetime. I will be seeing the ripe old age of 82. There is no doubt in my mind I will put myself in the best possible position to see that age because I owe it to my wife, my daughter, and myself. I will only get there by continuing to make my health my life like I have these last 28 years!!!