Embracing My Inner Alien - a column by Kevin Schaefer

wheelchair malfunction, movie theaterKevin is a writer, podcaster, and lover of all things pop-culture. Diagnosed with SMA Type 2 at the age of 18 months, he shares a vast array of hilarious and eye-opening stories from his life with a neuromuscular disability. In addition to his weekly columns, he works as the Director of Forums for this site’s parent company, BioNews. Kevin is a graduate of North Carolina State University and lives with his parents in Cary, NC. People regularly mistake him for Tony Stark, on account of his intellect and advanced technological equipment.

 

How a Meltdown Changed My Life for the Better

I was about to wrap up my freshman year of college when I found myself absorbed in a whirlwind of emotions. Tubes surrounded me as I sat in my room attached to my Vest Airway Clearance System, a device I’d been using since my sophomore year of high school.

Imagining a World Without Ableism

A friend and I were sitting in a dimly lit movie theater a few years ago when two guys in their 20s approached me. I couldn’t tell initially if I knew them, but after a closer look, I realized that neither was an acquaintance of mine. They each bore somber,…

Why Be Normal When We Can Be Special?

The Netflix series “Special” opens with its main character, Ryan, getting hit by a car and thrown into an existential crisis. The accident forces Ryan, a disabled gay man who has multiple insecurities, to evaluate his identity and pushes him to reinvent himself over the course of the first…

Defying Monotony in Life With SMA

“Hello, Peter. What’s happening? Umm, I’m gonna need you to go ahead and come in tomorrow. So, if you could be here around 9 that would be great. Mmkay? Oh, oh, and I almost forgot, ahh, I’m also gonna need you to go ahead and come in on Sunday, too,…

A Power Outage and a Frozen Ramp

Here in North Carolina, the weather fluctuates between springtime warmth on Christmas Day to freeze-your-butt-off cold a couple days later. We sometimes get all four seasons in the span of a few weeks, but it’s the wintertime that requires the most preparation. It forces people like…

Tick, Tick … SMA Adulthood

In the new Netflix original movie, “Tick, Tick…Boom!,” Andrew Garfield plays the late playwright and composer Jonathan Larson, whose most famous work is the Broadway musical sensation “Rent.” The film is based on Larson’s autobiographical musical of the same name. It’s a story of an…

The Human Side of the Internet

“The internet is a well of humanity if you dig past the surface of it.” Comedian, actor, and filmmaker Bo Burnham said this in 2019 during a writers panel hosted by The Hollywood Reporter. Burnham got his start making YouTube videos in the early 2000s, back when the concept…

Celebrating an Unexpected Birthday

I turn 28 on the day this column goes online. Though I thought it’d be fun to publish something on my birthday, I realize that 28 isn’t a particularly special number. It’s one year closer to 30, and it feels like an eternity from the legal drinking age…

‘Ordinary Joe’ Is Anything but Ordinary

When we think about key moments in our lives, such as weddings and graduations, most of us have a tendency to wonder how things might have turned out differently. We’ll wonder what might have happened if we’d chosen a different career path, pursued a certain relationship, or moved to our…