I am not an early adopter. Definitely not a trend setter. Take for example, my realization in 2005 that leggings were becoming popular once again. I was horrified. “Well, I can’t wear those,” I told my friend Wendie, who had broken the news. Of course, several years after everyone started wearing leggings again, I joined the crowd. And now leggings are the best thing ever, not that I can wear them, because it would require getting stuffed in and out of them multiple times a day.

Further evidence that I will never ride the leading spiral of a trending wave: I have not yet and probably never will embrace the phrase “hot mess.”

This is not merely a style issue. It very much pertains to my approach to life with ALS. I basically wait until I desperately need an assistive device before ordering said device. I was so terrified to be wheelchair-bound, that I used a walker for far longer than I should have. It wasn’t until I started falling even with the walker, and my mobility decreased to almost nothing, the long hallway of our apartment enough to leave my legs shaking and ineffectual, that I pulled the trigger on the wheelchair. And the day that it arrived: Freedom. Read More>