My name is Lucas Homan, and 6 weeks after being born I was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis which is a rare genetic disease that attacks the lungs mostly, but also attacks pancreas, liver, kidneys, and intestine. At the time, kids with CF were projected to only live no longer than older teenage years, I took my MAKE-A-Wish trip when I was in the first grade because doctors didn’t know how much longer I had till I took my last breath. I was in and out of the hospital every 3-6 months for two weeks at a time from that point on till around my freshman year of high school. This was very hard especially to a 7 year old that doesn’t understand why the other kids didn’t have to be hospitalized, why did I have to be the one kid who couldn’t play in the rain, Why do I cough so much when others didn’t, Why do I have to wake up so early before school to take so much medication and do my breathing treatments?  I would have breakdowns and cry so much about all these questions, but always my doctors or family would tell me it's going to be ok, just "BREATHE EASY. "

My sophomore year of high school, I was put on a test trial for a new “miracle drug”, and I can’t tell you how many times I heard that saying. I was one of the First Louisiana kids to start the drug name, “Trikafta” which was only available for trial in America with only 107 with my gene mutation out of 30,000 got selected for the drug. Within a month, I could tell it was working wonders for my health! Since that point, I barely cough, but the real blessing is I haven’t been hospitalized in 4 years, it was a miracle that the Lord provided for me.

I wasn’t going to waste this opportunity so going into my junior year, battling covid, I started exercising, then at the beginning of my senior year I started hitting the weights. I fell in the gym, and it got me through so much, because of my past I had to watch my workouts do to still having weak organs. As I got stronger and started upping the weight I was using, I would stop and just looked into the mirror at my eyes, telling myself after a deep breath "BREATHE EASY."