Hi! My name is Emma Mundwiler, I am 18 years old, and this is my story. I was born with Cystic Fibrosis, and my life has always looked different. My normal is not normal to anyone. For instance, my parents were told when I was young that I would probably not live to see my second birthday. When I was 2 ½ years old, I had a G-tube (feeding tube) placed in my stomach as an attempt to help me gain weight, because my body was struggling to do it on its own. For years, my sleep had been disrupted with tubes connected to my stomach. I would constantly be at various doctors' appointments and occasionally hospitalizations. My daily routine was filled with medications, multiple hours of treatment, and a laundry list of responsibilities that no child should have to carry. As I was growing up, this was normal, but that doesn’t change the hardships it had on my body and mind. For most of my childhood, it felt like I was constantly making attempts to get to the top of the stairs with my peers, but I was stuck in the middle of the staircase. I always wanted to be strong for myself, my friends, my family, but faking it did not always work. Then when I was 12 years old, my doctors introduced a new medication to me- Trikafta. At the time, I thought it was just another attempt of a medicine that probably would not help me, and just another thing to add to the list. I had no clue how that medicine would change my life. Months after I had started the medicine, my life had been the same. Still, constant treatments, medicines, and my lung function were still the same. At no particular point was there a “turning point” but I slowly started to feel different. Doctors' appointments started to bring good news instead of fear about the number on the scale or lung function. I had never experienced this type of hope, almost like a slow burn. For the first time, I felt like I was able to climb up a stair, which I never thought was possible. I thought that throughout my life; I’d be going down more stairs. I started to gain a little more energy, I started to be able to maintain weight, my lung function started to increase, and my life began to look very different. When I was 13, I got my G-tube removed. I started being able to take other medicines away, decrease my treatments, and start to have time for my life. Now that I’m 18, I can finally think about my future without the fear that I won’t be healthy enough to get there. My daily life is still filled with medications, setbacks in exercising, keeping up with my peers, and the anxiety that will always be there. I still live with fears of developing other cystic fibrosis related diseases, fear of getting sick again, and knowing that there are other people with CF that need help. The story is not even close to being finished, so please consider coming to walk with me and my team on Sunday, May 17th, to get one step closer to finding a cure.