“We are all going to die.”

I remember when Jeremie Saunders said this during his talk at TEDxToronto from a few years ago. At the time, Jeremie was 29 years old, and was three months away from his prescribed date of death due to Cystic Fibrosis. I can’t nearly do it justice, so here is the talk in full:

Some of my favorite passages and quotes:

On death and freedom:

Cystic Fibrosis is one of the best things that have happened to me. No longer does that sentence - “Cystic Fibrosis is a fatal genetic disease” - carry the weight of fear, rejection and anger. Instead it’s become this powerful source of inspiration - it drives me. You see, my unavoidable fate opened up my eyes so wide that it fundamentally changed what it means to live day in and day out, moment to moment. Cystic Fibrosis has essentially given me the impetus to not only accept my own mortality, but to embrace my own mortality. With that comes this extraordinary sense of freedom. And I can take that freedom and sprinkle it into my life by living like nothing is unattainable. I can take that big scary concept of death and instead of fear it, Use it, as a tool to motivate myself to live life to the fullest.

On living fully, a quote from Mark Twain:

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.

Jeremie is an incredible human and continues to share his message through his podcast Sickboy, about others who live with chronic or terminal illness, in order to destigmatize illness and build community for those who are sick. Check it out here.