The story of Ariek
Hello, this is the story of us “The Trio Brothers of SMA” from Jakarta, Indonesia.
My name is Ariek, and I’m the oldest one (26 years old). I have Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) type 3 and I was diagnosed with SMA when I was 2 years old. I also have two brothers, and we all have SMA. Each of us have different progression rate of SMA. My first brother name is Ilham, he is 24 years old now. Ilham has stronger muscle and has the slowest progressivity rate than the three of us. Meanwhile, our little brother Tegar has the fastest progressivity rate between us, and he never experienced how is it felt like to be walking.
Living as SMA is not an easy task. Sometimes we have some muscle pain problem, breathing problem, or some other issues/ complications. But we enjoy our life, because we have such a wonderful parents that always taking care of us and support us every day. Thank god for sending us the best parents in the world. Our mother always told us “ If other people can do it, why can’t we”. So we living our life like the others do. We are going to school , work, holiday, and socializing with other people without feeling embarrassed that we have SMA. I managed to finish collage as a bachelor of science in 2017. I love making comics too, so I’m making comic content on my Instagram about wildlife. My brother Ilham is study product design mayor in collage. He is on his last semester now. Tegar is now study in Junior High School, he has dreams of becoming Youtuber. We hope that we can inspire people so they don’t give up easily in life. We also hope that our country has more adequate facilities for people of SMA, so we can live independently. Ah yes.. you can check & follow my Instagram (@dimas.ariek) or Ilham’s Intagram (@byson_itemsurip) if you want to know more about us. Cheerio ~