It is hard to imagine how a person is to spend the entire life if only the hands and head are able to move.

Xu Ruiyang, an 18-year-old student from Kunming, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, said that she wants to live with dignity.

Xu has been suffering from spinal muscular atrophy since she was 2 years old. It is a kind of neuromuscular disorders that result in the loss of motor neurons and progressive muscle wasting. At that time, the doctor told the family that most children with SMA will only live a few years.

The family did not give up fighting with the disease, or even just complain about the injustice of life. In order to help Xu Ruiyang live with dignity, Xu's parents had to train their daughter's living and learning skills strictly, including using chopsticks or spoon, handwriting and reading. Opening a book or raising hands, some very simple actions for normal people, however are big challenge for Xu Ruiyang. She needs to use her head or mouth to cooperate with hands to finish these actions.

When she started learning to write, she found that her handwriting on paper was very light as her hands didn't have enough strengthen. Sometimes, she couldn't even hold a pen. But she never give up. Once she lost the pen, she picked it up and continued writing.

After practicing thousands of times, Xu Ruiyang finally learned more than 1,000 Chinese characters and could write 500 Chinese characters before becoming a primary school student. Over the past few years, Xu has overcome many problems and challenges, including for example, having to endure the pain caused by the severe deformation of the spine. Her parents worried about her physical conditions and advised her to drop out of school, but Xu's answer is no.

"As soon as I read a book and do my homework, the pain was gone," said Xu Ruiyang. When asked by reporters on how to deal with setbacks and frustrations, Xu Ruiyang thought briefly and calmly said, "Patience. Under circumstances that you can't change, crying is useless and it will bring negative energy to others. "

Xu Ruiyang's parents are optimistic about life, and they also bring this attitude to her daughter. "If we are not able to extend the life of the child, we can expand the width of her life," said Xu Junbo, Ruiyang's father. They travelled across China and more than 20 countries over the world, including the United States, Italy, Thailand and Singapore.

In Xu Ruiyang's opinion, her sunny and self-confidence personality are from the love of her parents. During these trips across the world, she met many new friends and decided to learn a foreign language.

"I think it's a cool thing to study a different language to learn about other countries' culture and express your feelings to others," said Xu. This June, she finished China's College Entrance Examination with an excellent score and received an offer from Sichuan International Study University.

She will complete her Thai language studies at this university in the next four years. The university also offered her an en-suite dormitory on the ground floor, and waived the accommodation fee for her life assistant.

"Life is short and fate is fragile," said Xu. So she thinks she should cherish time and do what she thinks is right. "To be a happy person," she added.

(Source: chinadaily.com.cn)