If I had a million dollars, I'd take perhaps $50,000 and put it in the bank for various expenses like rent for an apartment or tuition for college (and of course for emergency purposes). The rest I would donate to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. This is more of a selfish act than it seems.
I have Cystic Fibrosis, a genetic disease, and as much as it's been a part of my life since the day I was born, I don't want to live with it forever. I don't want to have to face the fact that I'll leave behind all the people I love so soon. I don't want to be afraid every time I get a cold that it might be something more serious. I don't want to spend every day taking pills and doing breathing treatments just because my genes are a tiny bit mutated. I don't want to slowly drown as my lungs fill with fluid. I don't want to live like that, and I don't want to die like that.
Maybe I won't have to, if we can find a cure. Maybe they'll find a way in time. And even if they don't, maybe they'll find a way soon enough to save some other girl from suffering like this. Because I've been fighting so long, and it never seems to end, and it's so hard to fight when you're battling something that's built into your very being from the start.
