I’m a light-hearted guy. I don’t take many things too seriously, and I don’t take offense when people make silly comments about being in a wheelchair. But recently when one of my friends who had a disability passed away, someone made a comment that bothered me. This person who will remain anonymous made a post on social media that our mutual friend “lost their battle” with their disability.

I feel like this is the line you hear after so many people with a disability pass away, but it’s unfair to say. First of all, it’s not right for someone to make a judgment about whether or not another person won or lost against their disability. And personally, I wouldn’t even consider living with a disability a “battle.” This is just my life, and like everyone else, I have obstacles I have to overcome. But if you want to make a judgment about whether or not a person won against their disability, shouldn’t you make that judgment based on how that person lived their life each and every day they were alive? We all die in the end, but when my game clock expires, nobody is going to say I lost.