By Steve Brawner

You can’t help but notice that Jacob White looks different, and so he doesn’t ask you to pretend otherwise. Ask him, and he’ll tell you about his condition – diastrophic dwarf dysplasia. Just don’t ask him to feel sorry for himself.

The rare genetic condition resulted in Jacob’s malformed limbs, hands and feet, spinal scoliosis, and other challenges. The only part of his body that he could move at birth was his head. He endured 13 surgeries on his legs, feet and ears from the age of two weeks until his seventh birthday. He lives with pain.
But instead of worrying about his shortcomings, Jacob focuses on what he can do. He has no mental disabilities. He can walk with the aid of a walker or travel at a crisp four miles an hour in a wheelchair.
Though he can’t make a fist, he can play the bell set and the xylophone in the band at Harmony Grove High School south of Benton. He can sing tenor so beautifully that he was named all-state in choir and hopes someday to be a music minister.
Jacob credits his mother, Beverly Malloy, a single mom who also raised his sister, Shawna, for helping him develop his outlook.
“My mom always raised me to be like, ‘You know, you have what you’ve got. Don’t take it as the end of the world,’” he said. “Because I could just sit here and be like, ‘Well, everybody should feel sorry for me.’ But I took it as, ‘I have something wrong with me. It’s not the end of the world.’ So I just kind of work through it.”
Jacob considers Beverly his best friend, and for her, the feeling is mutual. Knowing she would not always be there to help him, she raised him to be as independent as possible. “He was my baby,” she said. “I was going to fight for him until he could stand up and fight for himself. It didn’t make a difference to me if something was wrong with him or not. He was my baby.”
According to his principal, Walt Davis, Jacob’s positive attitude helps his classmates see him as just another student. “He’s just a normal senior high kid, but his character and his motivation and his drive to be here is not normal,” he said. “It’s outstanding.”
Now about to graduate from high school, Jacob, an active member of First Assembly of God Church in Benton, is planning on attending Southwestern Assemblies of God University in Waxahachie, Texas. Afterward, he plans on a career as a music minister, though he dreams of living in Australia and performing with the Christian rock group, Hillsong United. Maybe he’ll get married someday.
No matter where he is, he’ll keep that positive attitude. “I really don’t feel sorry for myself,” he said. “I have great friends, good family. I’m happy. It could always be worse, is what I tell myself when I’m starting to feel down. There are some people that don’t even have function of their brain. So I’m just thankful that I’m blessed this far.”