David Farrier

I thought this is some beautiful feedback from the parasocial listener story.

Just wanted to say thank you on parasocial listener, which focused on Nick and the health difficulties he was having.

When I first listened to this episode, I had quite a profound impact on me.

During the time of the episode's original airing, I was dealing with some health complications of my own.

Throughout my life, I've had lung complications.

Doctors put it down to severe asthma.

But after multiple rounds of various tests and CAT scans, I was eventually diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.

At first, it felt quite scary and daunting to be diagnosed with such a disease.

I asked myself, how could it be that I've reached my 20s without ever knowing I had this?

Yeah, it's something that this person said is generally diagnosed at birth and infancy, so I think when they found out in their 20s, they were just like, the idea was like, I should know this already, and this is a horrible thing to be finding out right now.

This listener, B, said that they were mad, they felt

It was unfair.

I knew I'd need to be put on new medications for the rest of my life.

I knew me and my partner would have to rethink our family plans as I'll most likely be unable to have biological children.

However, throughout all of this, I kept thinking back to the parasocial listener episode and the story Nick shared.

I specifically latched onto one thing he said in relation to having his condition.

Why not me?

Hearing this from someone like Nick really helped put some things in perspective.

Life can feel unfair at times, other times it can be downright cruel, but it can also be really beautiful.

No rain, no flowers, as they say.