Some of my biggest lessons have come from my toughest messes. To me, that’s the best way to grow. It’s the best way to move forward and come to terms with the challenges and obstacles people with SMA face on a daily basis. However, being able to learn…
Life, One Cup at a Time
— Alyssa Silva
Alyssa Silva is a writer based out of Providence, Rhode Island. She was diagnosed with SMA type 1 in 1991 when she was just 5 months old. Aside from writing, Alyssa is the chief creative officer for an intimates brand and runs a small business selling her artwork. In her free time, you can find her canceling plans to hang out with her golden retrievers, watching reruns of “The Office,” and convincing others why Taylor Swift is the greatest of all time.
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There aren’t many guarantees in life, but if you live in New England, you can always be sure there will be a winter nor’easter. With these storms come snow, wind, and power outages. The local news outlets remind everyone to get their bread and milk before the shelves are cleared,…
For the Silva family, cleaning out the basement in recent weeks has become a trip down memory lane. Pictures strewn in boxes tell stories of my childhood and how my parents did everything in their power to give me a “normal” childhood. Old textbooks remind of all the…
As a child, during the summer months, the neighborhood kids and I spent our days on the corner of my yard selling lemonade to passersby. My mother would help us prepare the drinks, she’d supply the napkins and cups, and she’d write out on a big poster…
My parents say it was another beautiful, sunny Saturday in April. They had two perfect children, a boy and a girl, like they had always wanted, and they couldn’t wait to finally start a family together. However, the merriment that usually filled the room suddenly stopped on that…
Coming to you, live from my couch and in yesterday’s clothes, this column is all about how I made a mistake. Truth be told, I’m not happy about admitting it. But with these words and with these columns, I made a promise to myself to always show up…
Growing up, there was a big bay window in the house where I lived. It overlooked the front yard and gave a great view of the surrounding houses and outside world. The sunlight shone through it, making anyone who sat next to it feel warm and happy. To…
This morning, I woke up to a most unusual greeting from my mother. “Good morning. I want you to stay out of Massachusetts,” she said while removing the BiPAP from my nose. Typically, she knows not to speak to me when I first wake up in the morning.
As Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong softly sing Christmas classics in the background, I ask my mother to set me up on my iPhone so I can gear up to write another column for you this week. There’s something both terrifying and wonderful about a blank page before…
Free time is a beautiful and wonderful thing to have in a day. It allows time for the activities we love most, breaks up our days so we’re not wearing ourselves thin, and gives a moment to rest and re-energize. It also is a rarity in my life…
Well, friends, today’s column is going to be unlike what you read here most in my little corner of the internet. That’s because this column is brought to you by endless fluids, antibiotics, steroids, and a nasty respiratory infection that is most likely walking pneumonia. Ah, yes,…
Let’s start this column off in the most real way possible. I’m weird. And I’m not afraid to let everyone know. I’m not talking about my weirdly disproportionate head-to-body ratio or that I have an arm that weirdly resembles that of a chicken wing. No, the weirdness I’m…
Birthdays take on a slightly different meaning around here. At this time every year, I think about a story my mother once told me about the first birthday I celebrated and wonder how painful and heart-wrenching it all must have been for my family to process. Although I’ll…
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