“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…
Embracing My Inner Alien
— Kevin Schaefer
Kevin Schaefer (he/him) is a writer, podcaster, and lover of all things pop culture. Diagnosed with SMA type 2 at the age of 18 months in 1995, he shares a vast array of hilarious and eye-opening stories from his life with a neuromuscular disability. He works as the associate director of community content for this site’s parent company, Bionews. He also hosts the SMA News Today Podcast. 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.
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In her anthology “Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century,” the late activist and writer Alice Wong offers profound insight into the power of storytelling. She says in one of her essays, “Storytelling can be more than a blog post, essay, or book. It can be an…
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…
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…
The worst part about long-running sitcoms is when they hit so close to real life. This is especially true when everyone’s favorite characters leave. Think about when Michael left “The Office,” or when Chris and Ann left the town of Pawnee in “Parks and Recreation.” These moments hit…
I woke up to a Facebook notification inviting me to a group for my high school reunion. It dawned on me that next year will mark a decade since I graduated. Factor in a pandemic, and it feels more like several decades since I crossed the stage in June 2012.
I was wrapping up a week of vacation when I came upon a flood of posts on my Instagram feed about “SMA Pride Month.” Though August is traditionally recognized as SMA Awareness Month, a group of SMA activists and influencers feel it’s important to rebrand the name. By calling it…
“LET ME KNOW IF YOU NEED ANYTHING!” An usher exclaimed these words at the top of his lungs in the church auditorium while putting his hand on my shoulder. To say this experience was patronizing would be an understatement, but it did provide the catalyst for the perfect rebuttal. Upon…
This year marked the second entirely virtual annual Cure SMA conference. Instead of armies of wheelchair users invading Disneyland and hotels, we fellowshipped through virtual trivia nights and Zoom socials. While I yearn to be back in person with my fellow SMA peeps,…
“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door. … You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.” By now, my readers and editors are probably rolling their eyes at the absurd number of…
One of my favorite films is “Rushmore,” a coming-of-age comedy from one of cinema’s most imaginative directors, Wes Anderson. “Rushmore” tells the story of quirky teenager Max Fischer, an ambitious playwright who prioritizes everything but his academics. He joins every…
My life is a sitcom. Recently, I was chatting with my friend Young, a columnist for Charcot-Marie-Tooth News, about our writing processes. He was rather amazed when I told him that I rarely plan column topics. In my life, it’s never…
Peter Jackson, the New Zealand filmmaker who spearheaded “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy and the 2005 remake of “King Kong,” is known for being a bit of a maverick. Even after acquiring commercial and critical success for…
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