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When I was a teenager, I thought smoking was cool. It seemed fun to try with friends, and for years, that is exactly how it stayed. I would smoke only three or four cigarettes a year, usually during a relaxed evening with friends. It was never a habit. Lately, though,…

It’s sweltering here in Texas. The air quality is abysmal, and a sense of “blah” seems to be everywhere. For somebody like me living with myasthenia gravis (MG), daily life is significantly more difficult this time of year. I’m forced to be semi-monastic, only crawling out of my lair,…

Living your best life sounds like a big and overly simply goal, the kind people put on vision boards or stitch onto throw pillows. But living with myasthenia gravis (MG), I’ve learned that my “best life” isn’t a sweeping transformation. It’s not a grand plan or a 10‑step program.

I wanted to live life to the fullest this year. I wanted to act as if I had no chronic disease, to try every activity that crossed my mind, to be more social, more active, and, in the end, simply happier. After years of feeling trapped inside an invisible cage…

Before I was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis (MG) and neurologists started timing how long I could hold my arms in the air, I had another name altogether. To my family, I was never really Mark. I was Boo, a shortened form of Booza. Usually, we don’t choose our nicknames.

There’s a phrase I hear more often than I’d like: “Must be nice.” Must be nice to sleep that long, to nap whenever I want, to not have to get up for work. Yeah, it’s real “nice” having a body that forces rest whether I want it or not. Here’s…

“You cannot find peace by avoiding life.” — From the 2002 film “The Hours” Peace of mind is a choice one makes to deal with life’s adversities. It’s a lesson I’m still learning myself. Over the years, I’ve made many assumptions about how my twin brother, Aaron, deals with…

I think that one of the hardest parts of living with an invisible disability is having to reconsider one’s career. From 2017 to 2026, I explored almost every work model imaginable: freelance, remote, hybrid, and full-time. Each came with its own advantages and challenges, and, surprisingly, this is one of…

“And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope.” The apostle Paul was not writing about myasthenia gravis (MG) with those words. He was speaking instead about the whole human condition, the arc of a…

One of the hardest parts of living with myasthenia gravis (MG) is how fast things can change. I can wake up feeling decent and start my day like anyone else, and then hit a wall so hard it feels like my body pulled the emergency brake without warning. People…