Time to Show CF who is Boss

TO DONATE, click on this link: http://www.cff.org/great_strides/AustinFrost Hey everyone. This blog is brand new, but wanted to let you know that I'm going to be uploading pictures and information continually as I train for my big run. WHY I CARE ABOUT CYSTIC FIBROSIS The answer is short: Jared. Jared Wolf was a once-in-a-lifetime friend (and to quote one of his favorite movies, The Little Rascals, "a once-in-a-lifetime friend only comes along once in a lifetime."). He and I were born a week apart in 1980, and some of my very earliest memories are of spending time with Jared and his family. I felt a special connection to Jared from an early age. He made adults and kids alike laugh, and it wasn't until I spent the night at his house for the first time that I realized anything was "wrong" with him. Jared had cystic fibrosis. We spent the majority of our waking hours during the summers together. We shot pigeons in the backyard together; we played racquetball and basketball together; we played Nintendo together, built legos together, went to Scout Camp together, and grew up together. Due to family circumstances, I spent school years during grammar school 3,000 miles from Jared, but each June when I'd return to the old neighborhood, we would pick up right where we left off. Unfortunately, Jared and I drifted my sophomore year of high school. We went to different high schools and somehow we let the school district's boundaries push us in different directions. We still saw each other regularly, but we were no longer inseparable. After high school, I went out-of-state for two years, and to my horror, Jared passed away during that time. I never got to say goodbye. I never got to tell him how important he was to me. I never got to tell him that I love him. In a very real way, this is what I'm doing now--I'm telling Jared that he was the greatest friend I could have asked for, and I'm "paying it forward" so that the thousands of children with CF will never have to say goodbye to their best friends until their old and gray.