SMA News Today Columns

August 3, 2022August 3, 2022

The Intersection of Friendship and SMA: An Interview With Columnist Brianna Albers

SMA Awareness Month is upon us! To celebrate and remind everyone that raising awareness includes talking about our daily lives and relationships, I’m honored my best friend, Brianna Albers, said ... Read more

August 1, 2022August 1, 2022

The Power of Friendship: An Interview With Columnist Sherry Toh

SMA News Today Columns

Longtime readers of my column will know that I am fellow columnist Sherry Toh’s biggest fan. Navigating SMA alongside her has been one of the greatest honors of my life. ... Read more

July 29, 2022July 29, 2022

Cleaning Up After SMA’s Messes Is a Dirty Job

SMA News Today Columns

With that headline, I’d expect this column to belong to my friend and SMA News Today colleague Kevin Schaefer. After all, he’s not shy about sharing less than pleasant aspects ... Read more

July 29, 2022July 29, 2022

My Most Comfortable Position Makes Me Feel Uncomfortable

SMA News Today Columns

Before I began writing today’s column, I recorded video interviews for a rather well-known brand here in the United States, focusing on my role as chief creative officer at an ... Read more

July 28, 2022July 28, 2022

Bringing Awareness to the Challenges and Successes of Living With SMA

SMA News Today Columns

SMA Awareness Month is coming up in August. The question for me is, what’s the best way to raise awareness about this disease? My thoughts are that it is best ... Read more

July 27, 2022July 27, 2022

To Delete or Not to Delete: That May Be the Question

SMA News Today Columns

“MomMom! MomMOM!” When hollered out in glass-shattering decibels, my grandma moniker can mean anything. During my recent extensive time in charge of our grandchildren, Clara, 6, and James, 4, I’ve ... Read more

July 26, 2022July 26, 2022

Riding the Roller Coaster of Being a 20-something With SMA

SMA News Today Columns

In the film “Licorice Pizza,” 20-something protagonist Alana (Alana Haim) leaps from one adventure to the next in the eccentric atmosphere of 1970s Southern California. She meets the smooth-talking teenage ... Read more

July 25, 2022July 25, 2022

Let’s Talk Victim Mentalities: Stagnancy in Life With SMA

SMA News Today Columns

It’s been a minute since I put my degree in counseling to good use. Let’s change that, shall we? Last week, I wrote about a recent ghost vacation. For those ... Read more

July 22, 2022July 22, 2022

Balancing Hope for the Future With a Focus on Today

SMA News Today Columns

It’s not uncommon to plan for the future. Most of us have at least an idea of what we’d like our lives to look like five, 10, or 20 years ... Read more

July 20, 2022July 20, 2022

How to Become a Freelance Journalist: Crip Edition

SMA News Today Columns

From my perspective, the typical path to becoming a journalist looks like this: First, you enter the formal education system and learn what you can from kindergarten till high school. ... Read more

July 18, 2022July 18, 2022

I’m Not Really Here: Taking a Ghost Vacation to Refocus

SMA News Today Columns

“Sometimes I pretend I’m dead.” This sounds like the lead-in to a particularly macabre joke. But in actuality, it’s a personal practice with the potential to revolutionize our approach to ... Read more

July 15, 2022July 15, 2022

The Best Unorthodox Advice From My Doctor

SMA News Today Columns

When you’re living with a complicated disease such as SMA, it’s half the battle to have a knowledgeable and trustworthy medical team helping to manage everything. I’ve always been fortunate ... Read more

July 13, 2022July 13, 2022

How a Community Becomes Like Family When We Need It Most

COVID-19 Columns, SMA News Today Columns

As others set off fireworks on Independence Day, a Facebook post set off personal waterworks. It also determined the focus of this column. Credit angel intervention. *** Molly Grantham is ... Read more

July 11, 2022July 11, 2022

This Year’s SMA Conference Was a Blow to My Impostor Syndrome

SMA News Today Columns

Three years into my collaboration with biotech company Genentech, and I still feel like a fish out of water. This is what professionals call impostor syndrome (IS), defined by Lexico ... Read more

July 6, 2022July 6, 2022

The Importance of Paradises in a World on Fire

COVID-19 Columns, SMA News Today Columns

A single lyric keeps ringing in my head from Fletcher’s latest single, “Her Body Is Bible.” It goes, “Hold on tight, when the world gets hard, this s**t’s like paradise.” ... Read more