Strangers Assume My Girlfriend Is My Nurse by Shane Burcaw

A fantastic book about the life of Shane Burcaw, a young man with (SMA) Spinal Muscular Atrophy. He gives details about his disease and how it affects his life. Told with humor and honesty he gives details on his life, family, and finding his true love (Girlfriend) now wife Hannah.

I truly enjoyed this book. Shane is a remarkable young man who has a successful (Non profit) organization for Muscular Dystrophy www.laughingatmynightmare.com and a You Tube channel with his wife Hannah : Squirmy and Grubs (Please check them out).

I highly recommend Strangers Assume My Girlfriend Is My Nurse to all. ( )

Fun, funny, and though provoking set of essays by Shane Burcaw. I've really enjoyed reading his writing since I picked up "Laughing at my Nightmare" and also laugh along with his and Hannah's hijinks on YouTube. ( )

In this book, Burcaw talks about various experiences as he lives with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Some of these include moments from his childhood, but the majority are events from in his 20s.

The individual chapters read more like episodic essays (not terribly surprising when one considers that Burcaw more or less started his writing career as a blogger), although they do progress linearly and occasionally reference back to a previous chapter. Throughout, Burcaw uses humor to talk about the various situations, even if he also sometimes expresses fear, embarrassment, annoyance, etc. His tone feels rather conversational, thus drawing the reader in.

I had previously read Burcaw's book for children (and never his blog) so I was initially a bit surprised to find the crass language in this title, although it is clearly used for comedic effect. The overall theme is actually quite similar to his children's book -- to show that people with disabilities are "not so different" from able-bodied people and have similar hopes and dreams and concerns.

To wit, "From the earliest days I can remember, my body, society, and the world around me have been feeding me the same message: You are sick and different and your existence is a pity. People are programmed to feel bad for me, knowing nothing about the quality of my life. At times, the outside perception that my life is negative and sad became so powerful that I internalized it and developed harmful beliefs that I was a burden to even the people who love me most.
It was largely my responsibility to shake off that idea and prove my worth, to show people that I am just as funny, intelligent, sexy, hardworking, adventurous, and successful as anyone else. My friends, family, and girlfriend played a crucial role in helping me achieve a healthy mind-set about society's misperceptions and my place within in it."

While Burcaw is just one voice in the disability community so his views may not express everyone's opinion, I think it is worthwhile for those without disabilities to read this book (and/or others like it) to check their own privilege and how they respond to those who look differently from themselves. ( )

A collection of essays about the author's struggle to gain adult independence, grow his business while dealing with a degenerative disease that requires around the clock care. ( )