Unapologetic · Uncompromising · Unfiltered
Still
Existing
Is Rare.
0.00122% …
of humanity shares my starting point. I am rare not because I survived, but because I still exist at all.
$3.5M
Raised for CF Research
110K+
CrossFit HQ Views
2
University Degrees
54
& Still Doing CrossFit
My Story
Built on Impossible Odds.
I was born with cystic fibrosis — a disease that, statistically speaking, should have written a very different ending. Instead, I founded a CrossFit gym, raised $3.5 million for CF research, completed the CrossFit Open with approximately 25% lung function, and had a research lab named after me at the University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine. In 2017, filmmaker Laura O’Grady documented five weeks of that struggle. CrossFit HQ shared it. 110,000 people watched.
This site is where I write about all of it — without apology.
I’m witty, sarcastic, and stubborn in the best way — the kind of person who’ll make you laugh while simultaneously showing you what’s actually possible.
Graphic Design & Integrated Digital Media 2026
University of Calgary Professional Certification — 4.0 GPA
Doc Seaman Individual Philanthropist Award 2014
Summit Foundation for Cystic Fibrosis
BA Spanish 2008
University of Calgary
BA Political Science 1995
University of Calgary
Nicole Perkins Microbial Communities Core Labs 2013
https://snyder.ucalgary.ca/research/core-resources/nicole-perkins-microbial-communities-core-labs
What You’ll Find Here
Five columns. One voice. No apology for either.
Blog
Nicole’s Notes
The Coles Notes version of how I think. Sharp, fast, and allergic to pretending things are fine when they’re clearly on fire.
PODCAST
Nicole’s Notes
Nicole’s Notes, but for your ears. Same unfiltered voice, zero commute regrets.
Column
Without Apology
The unfiltered mechanics of actually living, solitude, grit, reinvention, and the particular kind of loneliness that comes from being the person everyone assumes doesn’t need help.
Essays
The Long Pour
Slow down. These aren’t quick takes. These are the things that took years to figure out and cost something to write.
keynote
Speaking
Keynotes on resilience, leadership, and refusing to live diluted. She will move your room.
The Daily Ritual
For over 40 years, my only vice has been a Coke on the rocks in a wine glass, every single morning.
Latest Posts
- Cap and gown at 54
I Graduated. Again. A 4.0, Ten Thousand Dollars, and a Marijuana Dog Poster That Nobody Asked For. - My Road to Self Sabotage and Back
I went looking for a tidy way to write about Jung’s shadow theory and ended up confessing to a third-grade lie about a dog food commercial, a jealousy problem I’m not proud of, and twenty years of being mad at my nineteen-year-old self. No resolution. Just the long pour. - My Journal Entries, unpacked
Nicole’s Notes series about strength, heartbreak, self-respect, and what it really costs to feel everything without running. Starts now. - I am about to graduate…again. someone stop me.
She graduated. Again. With an A+ average, a brain full of skills she never thought she’d know, and a sketchbook containing the most psychologically troubled apples in the history of Canadian academia.