My name is Meta Vaughan.

My birth certificate is in a language I can’t read, I have cystic fibrosis, and I’m left handed. 

When I was a child, the life expectancy for CF was very low. Apart from that one factor, I had no idea what life with CF might end up looking like.

Over the years I have moved countries enough times that my accent isn’t from any particular place, my health has disengaged with expectations in numerous ways, and I still have no idea what my life will look like in a few years from now. 

I am part of the first generation of people with CF to survive into adulthood. We are also the last generation of people with CF to grow up thinking that we wouldn’t. My life expectancy has always been around 5 years in front of me, no matter how much time passes.

With new genetic modulator therapy, my eventual demise no longer looms within sight. 

There are so many of us experiencing this terrifying, ecstatic unmooring, and I felt our stories had to be told.