WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — Saif Aslam still remembers the way one of his favorite children's books made him feel.
So much so, it inspired a dream inside of him.
"One day I realized that at a certain point, there's really no time or no person who is going to point at me and say you are the one who can be an author,” Aslam explained.
So he took what he wanted and became an author.
His book, 'What I could've been', is a tale about a grandfather sharing with his grandson the lesson of taking advantage of the present instead of only dreaming.
"I remember going back up there and talking to the kids and it felt like I'd come full circle and I was now the one speaking in front of those kids," the 18-year-old said.
Aslam has a genetic disease called congenital muscular dystrophy-- limiting his ability to do certain tasks alone. His talent became philanthropic, donating 40% of the proceeds from his book to make a wish and CureCMD.
"With this book, I thought, 'Alright this is the one thing I can do. Let me see if I can try to make it into something that can help others for a change, instead of me being the one that's being helped," he continued.
As he prepares to graduate high school and move on to college, he says this message of being present resonates for those young or old just as it has for him.
"If I hadn't sat down and said I'm going to try this and I'm going to see if I can do this instead of just thinking 30 years later, 'oh man, if I would've just done that then, maybe I could've been this. I wouldn't be where I am right now giving an interview,” he said.
As a special tribute to his grandfather who was also an author who passed, inspired Aslam's pen name for the book.
You can find that book on Amazon.