Michael Hanson has made a habit of overcoming challenges in his life. He weighed just 24 ounces when he was born. His premature birth led to vision problems. But Michael's not the type of person to sit around and feel sorry for himself, he has dreams and they come true every time he gets to share his love of music.

Michael maneuvers around his band without missing a beat. In fact, it's hard to tell he has any disability at all. But he reveals stories of his past, "Oh, there's been a lot of things I've done before, I've run into people a lot before in my life. I've tripped over things a lot. That's just the pitfalls of where I am."

Michael says he is legally blind, "I've been told that for every mile people see, I see a couple hundred yards of that."

This 35-year-old tries his best not to let his limited vision bother him, but Michael says, "At times it's very hard, very frustrating especially when you have to interact with people, you have to work with people and the disability gets in your way. Every once in awhile there's some sleepless nights cause you're tryin' to be the best you can be."

That said, Michael's students don't seem to notice. Senior Staci Ronhovde says, "I think it's pretty crazy. I don't even realize or recognize that he has vision impairment any more, I just don't think about it because he still does everything like normal and still keeps the class under control." Staci's classmate Alyssa Dipaolo agrees, "He reads his music really up close and that I'm used to and it's really funny when we go to honor bands and other people talk to me about that am I like, 'Oh yeah, I don't really notice that,' he's still an awesome band teacher."

And it's that positive spirit that helps Michael march on, "You've got to persevere, there's a lot of other people that have worse problems than I do and a lot worse handicaps than I do and there more successful than I am so there's always that goal of trying to be the best you can be."

If you'd like the Elmwood-Murdock band march on Memorial Day, you can see the entire 3-hour parade starting at 1p.m. on The Military Channel.

For more information: http://www.nationalmemorialdayparade.com