Welcome to Coke on the Rocks

I’m Nicole Zeller.

Designer. Founder. Researcher. The woman who has started every morning for 40 years with a Coke on the rocks in a wine glass — because that’s the one vice cystic fibrosis doesn’t get to take from me.

I was born with CF at a time when children with the disease were not expected to survive childhood. Nobody told me that in a way that stuck. I made the dean’s list, captained teams, left small-town Saskatchewan, built a life in Calgary, and finished a Political Science degree with 40% lung function. Six weeks before my wedding, a feeding tube saved my life. I kept going anyway.

I founded the Summit Foundation for Cystic Fibrosis, which raised over $3.5 million for local research and programming. I served as a patient ambassador for a $340 million hospital fundraising campaign. In 2013, a research lab at the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary was named after me — the Nicole Perkins Microbial Communities Core Labs. In 2014, I was named Doc Seaman Philanthropist of the Year for Southern Alberta.

Then a breakthrough drug arrived and slowed the disease that had been the engine of my entire life. I was given a stay of execution — not a cure, but time. And I chose to use it to reinvent myself completely.

At 53, I went back to university. I’m finishing a degree in Graphic Design and Integrated Digital Media at the University of Calgary — my third degree from my alma mater. I built a home gym. I started writing. I launched this site.

This is not an inspirational blog. It’s a thought leadership platform. I write about life, love, politics, creativity, and the particular kind of clarity that comes from having lived close to the edge for a very long time. I don’t soften things. I don’t do crumbs. And I don’t apologize for taking up space.

Woe to the child who tastes salty from a kiss on the forehead, for he is bewitched and soon must die. -18th c. proverb describing cystic fibrosis

Stay Fierce. The World Will Adjust.