Columns

Content warning: This column deals with the topics of death and suicidal ideation.  “The first dead body you see should not be someone you love,” advises funeral director Poppy Mardall in journalist Hayley Campbell’s 2022 book “All the Living and the Dead.” Campbell’s book provides remarkable insight…

In the 1995 drama “Mr. Holland’s Opus,” the film’s titular protagonist confronts a boardroom of school administrators during a pivotal third-act scene. Glenn Holland (Richard Dreyfuss), a longtime high school music teacher, refuses to back down when his superiors declare their intention to eliminate the school’s music…

Growing up, my pediatrician was more than a doctor; she was part of the family. She supported me through all of life’s transitions, from puberty and menstruation to my transition to adult care when I turned 20. She even attended my high school graduation party. She knew all of…

I just turned 26 on Sept. 26, which makes it my golden birthday. Never heard of a golden birthday? You’re not alone. It’s believed they were invented by American author and teacher Joan Bramsch in the 1950s. She celebrated each of her five children’s golden birthdays, and the…

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing on the news. A tornado had touched down in my home state, Rhode Island, for the fourth time in six weeks. Before these, I’d heard of one or two tornadoes touching down in New England in my lifetime. Never were they close…

It’s officially fall in the U.S.! The weather here in the North Carolina mountains has been stupendous. I could almost hear our assorted fans breathe a collective sigh of relief when we finally turned them off at times and even closed some windows at night to keep from…

“People think bisexuals stereotypically can’t decide on which gender we want to have sex with, when the truth is, we can’t decide on anything,” someone in a group chat once joked. I laughed far longer than perhaps was appropriate, nodding along at the truth of the statement, at least…

Note: This column contains spoilers for the musical “Wicked.”  A few weeks ago, I saw the award-winning musical “Wicked” with my sister-in-law. I saw the show back in 2012 with my parents in New York City, and I jumped at the chance to buy tickets when I…

I’d just survived a car accident in Phoenix while road tripping with my parents from our home in Minnesota to the 2022 Cure SMA conference in Anaheim, California. (Long story short, my dad ran over a particularly nasty curb in a gas station parking lot. Any other…

In the SMA community, we expect to grieve the loss of our abilities, given the nature of this disease. But for me, grief often feels like an ambush. In my three decades of life, I’ve lost many abilities. And every ability lost comes with its own grieving…