At age 4, CSULB student Mike Battle was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, a disease that causes muscles to steadily weaken with age. By the time Battle reached the eighth grade, he could no longer run—and so instead of gym class, he took home economics. “In middle and high school, I always tried to hide my disability, because I was made fun of every day,” he says.
Today, however, Battle deals with his disability with a more positive attitude. “I accept this disease as part of the territory, as much as I don’t like it,” he says matter-of-factly. Battle has come to realize that focusing on the disease and its debilitating nature offers no help. “If you start to think, ‘Why me?’ it doesn’t get you anywhere. I can easily get depressed, but life’s too short for that. I approach my life one day at a time,” he explains.
Activities like playing his favorite video game Smash Brothers and using the stationary bike every day for 40 minutes help him stay emotionally and physically strong, but above all Battle enjoys spending time with friends. “My friends are my family,” he says, and grabbing lunch or hitting the movies are among the highlights of his week. Battle’s peers have also become a very important and motivating factor in his life: “I guess the fact is that my friends need me and they rely on my input,” he says. “It makes me feel like I am necessary.”
In return, Battle relies on his friends. And although this isn’t ever easy, he says he has come to terms with this truth. “I have learned that I need to be real and genuine with others,” Battle says. “And I’ve begun to realize that this is one of the greatest things in the world.” // NATE BROWN
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