The Spinal Muscular Atrophy Podcast with Kevin Schaefer · SMA News Today

#146: TJ Wall, graduate student with SMA

·32 min·1 clip

TJ says law school was feasible on paper, but coaching football felt more fulfilling than an office job.

1. The Spinal Muscular Atrophy Podcast with Kevin Schaefer focuses on TJ Wall, a Texas student with SMA type 2 and a coaching goal. 2. Kevin Schaefer hosts, introduces himself as a columnist and forums director for smanewstoday.com, and speaks with TJ Wall, a graduate student at Texas A&M University. 3. The episode asks how TJ moved from political science and law-school plans toward teaching, coaching football, and community work. 4. TJ says he was diagnosed with SMA type 2 at about 18 months old and grew up in Texarkana, Texas. 5. He is the oldest of four children, with three younger brothers who all like sports. 6. TJ says he could not play sports, so he became interested in the mental side of them and in what he could do around the game. 7. He says he originally wanted to be a lawyer, majored in political science, and then weighed law school against debt and long-term fit. 8. TJ says coaching football looked more fulfilling than office-based legal work because it would let him use his abilities every day. 9. He says he went back to school for a teaching certificate and a master's in education while studying at another school district. 10. TJ says his high school newspaper work put him close to sports, including contributing to one-third of the sports section as a staff writer. 11. He says he later became sports editor for two years and won a Texas award for an online sports feature about a player who committed to TCU. 12. TJ says he also wrote for his local newspaper after high school and covered games at his own school and others. 13. He says he wanted the Baylor path first, then looked at the University of Arkansas and Texas A&M-Texarkana when caregiving and tuition made living away unrealistic. 14. TJ says his family has never been able to pay privately for a caregiver, so Medicaid provides the hours they can get. 15. He says he had expected college logistics to work out more easily, but the realities of caregiving and cost pushed him to stay in town. 16. TJ says most of his undergraduate classes were online after COVID, and he finished his bachelor's in about a year and a half because he had already done two years of college. 17. He says graduate school feels more applicable because his teaching program focuses on government and on how classrooms, grading, and testing work in practice. 18. The conversation stays conversational and personal, with Kevin and TJ comparing college, caregiving, student journalism, and the value of meeting other SMA families. 19. People interested in SMA, adaptive college paths, or coaching careers will get the most from it. 20. Listeners wanting a fast celebrity interview or a purely medical discussion may skip it.

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