By Angela Twining
Common sense teaches that finding a second opinion is well worth the effort, but Steve Mikita said he focuses on the third opinion — his own.
“When I was 15 months old, the first opinion was I”d walk any day. The second opinion at 18 months was that I”d die any day,” said Mikita, an adjunct professor at the BYU Law School.
But the third opinion was his own — the choice to live. Mikita, who was born with spinal muscular atrophy, said, “I”m not good at standing or running, but I am good at communicating.”
Mikita will be signing copies of his recently published autobiography in the BYU Bookstore on Wednesday, April 4, from noon to 1:30 p.m.
“My experiences apply to each of us. I wrote the book to give encouragement,” he said. “It”s a book about choices we make every day. Every day is a new fight, and our dreams and goals are worth fighting for.”
Mikita is also a motivational speaker who travels the country and teaches life is to thrive, not merely to survive.
He said three things motivated him while growing up: family, faith and FDR.
“Even when I was four, I had a role model. Franklin Delanor Roosevelt didn”t let his polio defeat him, and I wouldn”t let my disease control me,” Mikita said.
Mikita said he was the first freshman in a wheelchair to enroll at Duke University in 1974. He graduated magna cum laude from the university in political science and religion, but not before writing a paper on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its beliefs concerning Jesus Christ.
He said this paper converted him to the gospel of the Church of Jesus Christ.
He graduated from the J. Reuben Clark Law School in 1982 and has worked with Senator Orrin Hatch and the Senate Judiciary Committee.
He is now employed at the attorney general”s office in Salt Lake City and teaches a seminar on disability law both at BYU and the University of Utah.
Jennifer Hare, 24, a law student from Tracy, Calif., said Mikita”s personal experiences add so much to the disability law class she takes from him.
“He has done a lot of incredible things and that”s inspiring. He makes it very clear that we can do that, too,” she said. “We all have our challenges and we all have our things to overcome.”
Scott Cameron, associate dean of the Law School, said Mikita was awarded the Honored Alumnus from the Law School in 1994 for the great example he sets for the students.
Mikita is a capable attorney and also an enjoyment to work with, Cameron said.
“I think that his enthusiasm for the law and its ability to assist people is inspirational,” he said. “It helps the students keep the ideals that they started law school with, that law is a service profession.”
Mikita said he believes each person has a mission to ease the burden of another.
“I invite students to step out of their comfort zone and become friends with someone with a disability. We end discrimination not by law, but by relationships,” he said.
Mikita has also been on “60 Minutes” and won the National Personal Achievement Award. Leeza Gibbons wrote the forward to Mikita”s book and awarded him the latter recognition in 1992.
Students can reach Mikita at www.stevemikita.com.
