Author Archives: Ari Anderson

Over the years, I’ve thought, “I wish I didn’t have all of these responsibilities and could just have fun all of the time. Living with SMA provides enough pressure that I didn’t ask for!” Growing up, I would frequently hear, “Go study for those two tests you have at…

Have you ever noticed that people are similar to countries, and vice versa? Everyone has their own exports (products or services we produce) and imports (products or services we buy, such as food). Two or more individuals can become like allied nations when a friendship forms and they begin…

One of the most extraordinary things about life is its ability to change the person we used to be into something completely new. We can’t always choose what befalls us in life, yet we do have a responsibility to choose whether we’re changed for the better or…

We live in an age of rumors and widespread gossip. Many people seem to be mudslinging, and we’re all covered in it. Gossip didn’t start with the rise of social media, which is just a new medium through which it can slowly drip into…

In my previous column, I shared how sometimes our advocates come from the unlikeliest of places. Yes, even politicians, who some believe are the embodiment of greed and corruption, can make an enormous difference in our lives. The mystery senator I spoke…

It can be annoying when you receive devastating news, and someone naively says, “When one door closes, another one opens!” As someone who has received plenty of bad news, there is some truth to this statement, no matter how cliché it sounds. In the ’90s, I received the devastating…

To those feeling too rare on Rare Disease Day (Feb. 28) let the following empower you. The saying “hidden in plain sight” can take on a new meaning when you have a rare disease. I’m rare because I have a huge wheelchair and tracheostomy, but that doesn’t mean…

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could easily put into practice the lessons we learned growing up? We were taught to think about the effects of our decisions, but sometimes it is difficult to know how our actions may affect the lives of other people. For those of us…

To make my sometimes hazardous life with SMA less scary and more exciting, I tend to think of myself as a pioneer. As my previous column noted, I carry a lot of “baggage,” or experiences, during my travels. In 1803, as PBS noted, U.S. President Thomas…

Doesn’t it feel like we all carry a lot of baggage in life? If we could just forget about all the negatives, we could live on cloud nine. What if I told you that we would be permanently stuck on ground level, going nowhere in life, without all the…