Columns

On Being a Hot Person in a Wheelchair

Across social media platforms right now, there’s a trend where people post pictures of themselves from 10 years ago next to current ones. The idea is to see how much people have changed over a decade and to laugh at embarrassing old images. It’s been entertaining,…

With the New Year Comes Home Renovation

I’ve mentioned a couple of times that I don’t think I could live in the middle of nowhere. My parents want nothing more than to raise a few goats in rural Wisconsin, where they recently bought their “forever home,” a small farmhouse with decent acreage. I, however, would…

Welcome to Life with Vertigo

Hello. My name is Alyssa Silva, and on Jan. 7, I failed my vertigo test. Again. For the sixth or seventh time. Here’s a little useless fact about me: I’m a terrible test taker. In college, my final grades were saved by papers and projects because I always…

Free Advice Worth Paying For

I go to my family and friends for advice before anyone else. They’ve always given me tremendous input, but how is that affected by SMA, if at all? In the following interview, the first in a series, I’ll explore how SMA impacts the way people perceive me, as well as…

A Surprising Start to 2019

Professional writing has always been a bit of a dream job. As a college freshman, I realized that my idea of writing didn’t exactly coincide with academic writing, which had me taking juvenile literature classes and, the bane of my existence in 2013, British literature courses.

Taking a New Approach to New Year’s Resolutions

Last week, I explained why I’m ditching the “new year, new you” mantra. Today, I’m keeping the conversation going by discussing my alternative to New Year’s resolutions. I’ve never been the type of person to set resolutions, and that’s for one simple reason: Life with SMA can…

The Cruelty and Complexity of SMA

In season five of the FX series “Sons of Anarchy,” main character Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam) watches his best friend Opie (Ryan Hurst) die in a prison fight. It’s a brutal scene that features some of the show’s defining elements: Shakespearean drama, graphic violence, and…