This blog post is about why I'm on board with the movie, why I'm excited to see it, and why it means a lot to me.
On Friday, November 2, CBS Films released the trailer for the movie Five Feet Apart, a love story featuring two patients with cystic fibrosis. It draws similarities to The Fault in Our Stars, but that is for another blog post (maybe. There is a good chance I bring it up again here, so stay tuned.). Watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cJ7MT1RTqs
The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation recommends that CF patients don't come in contact with each other, because infections can spread too easily and can be very dangerous to the patients, but if patients do happen to meet each other, the CFF suggests they stay 6 ft. or more apart. This is to prevent infectious disease, and while it is a very serious thing and something I take relatively seriously, it can be seen as a joke to some patients, and honestly, it is kind of funny.
What makes 6 feet the magical number? I'm sure docs have studied and didn't just pull 6 ft out of thin air, but how big of a difference is 5 feet from 6? 6 from 7? Some patients even just say screw it and straight up hug each other. While I wouldn't do that, I get it. Life is short, and I've written about this. Live how you want because death is inevitable. For everyone, not just for CF patients, though people with chronic illnesses have a better sense of this. It is more immediate and so we are a little more willing to live.
I finally met my friend Natalie (shout-out to Natalie. I'm not telling her I'm putting her in this so if you're reading this, Natalie, shout-out to you), someone with CF who is my age in person this spring after talking to her online for almost 7 years (I think?). It was awesome! We made a joking comment about making sure we were 6 feet apart, and I don't think we were exactly 6, but neither of us made a big fuss about it. That wasn't the point. The point was we were meeting each other in person after years of talking behind a screen. The point was sharing our experiences, our lives.
And that's the point of Five Feet Apart. The movie, while is a romance and will most likely be sappy and cheesy and pretty Hollywood-esque, addresses a very real thing for people with any chronic illness, but CF specifically: the need for and deprivation of simple things. The first words you hear in the trailer are from Haley Lu Richardson's character: "I never understood the importance of touch. Until I couldn't have it."
Holy. Crap. Human touch. That's it!!! That's what she wants!! People with CF are asking to breathe, to touch, to love without boundaries, without fears, without worry. That's what Five Feet Apart is showing the world. It's showing the desire for us CF-ers to live, to breathe, to be normal. What will probably end up being my favorite line in the entire movie comes in at the trailer around the 1:45 mark: "This whole time I've been living for my treatments instead of doing my treatments so that I can live." CRAP. I love that line. I feel as if it embodies my way of thinking and honestly? I'm mad that I didn't think of it. I wish I could pass it off as my own but even though I can't, I still love it and will share it profusely.
This line gives me hope that the movie isn't going to just be a sappy love story. And just because it might end up having ridiculous tropes and one of them will die and stuff doesn't mean the movie doesn't represent cystic fibrosis or people living with it. Because from what I can tell, it has a lot of aspects of CF that hit home. They wear oxygen occasionally, they both have vog masks, they have a crap ton of meds, they hate doing treatments and meds but know they have to do them, they interact with nurses in a personal way (not just professional). There are a lot of cool aspects. I hope that the movie doesn't take place primarily in the hospital.
People are upset that they get even closer. FIVE FEET APART OMG. But again, what's the difference between 5 and 6? Especially for people who have a genuine connection. They don't (from what I can tell) break 5 feet (though I'm sure they will in the movie). They recognize their limits and understand what it means for them so they keep their distance but compromise a bit and decide to be only 5 feet apart. That extra foot to these lovers means the world to them, and of course they'd love more but they will take what they can get and this is what they can get.
With a disease that takes away so much, it's finally time to take back something.
Love is love. I don't like Grey's Anatomy's episode where there are two CF patients who are in a more intimate relationship than this one, and I'm not wild about the idea of a movie with two CF patients in a 5-foot-apart relationship, but again, are they just expected to move on? To give up and say "This is just something else cystic fibrosis is taking away from me."? First my breath, then my weight, then my lifespan, then my time, then my school, then my friends, and now my love. We shouldn't let cystic fibrosis rule what we do. We should rule CF. That being said, we still need to be cautious but why not live just a little?
I'd rather live just one more year having done a TON of amazing things, like travel, meet people, have great experiences trying new things, and living to my fullest than living another 1,000 years not doing any of that because I was worried about my cystic fibrosis.
It is a hard line to walk. You have to be careful, but you have to live. Quality of life is just as, if not more, important than life span. And I think Five Feet Apart shows that.
