My name is MJ Maddox, and I am a self-published author who was born with a disability called Acromatopsia. This is a deformation in the rod and cone cells in my eyes which has left me with severely reduced visual acuity, peripheral vision, and depth perception. Because of this disability I have lived a life that was very different from most such as being unable to drive, among other challenges. Due to my own self-esteem issues, I wasn’t the best student, or athlete, but I joined my middle school track team and fell in love with long distance running. My desire and motivation to continue running in high school turned my life around. I gained a sense of self-confidence, graduated high school with a 3.7 GPA, got a scholarship to run in college, and then graduated magna cum lade with a degree in psychology.
As far as I recall, I've been a bit of an outcast between being bullied by classmates when I was young and having faced some level of discrimination during and after I graduated from college. I went to a state school and was part of the cross country and track team. I was enjoying being on my own, but before my second year of competing even started, things got complicated. My coach sent me a text a week before the team’s summer training camp saying she wasn’t going to let me come because I was too much of a liability due to my disability.
After that, I finished off the fall semester, moved back home and took classes online during the spring, and then transferred to a small Christian college called William Jessup University where I finished my degree. It was at that small college that I made good friends, opened up to my new friends about my problems, felt accepted by others despite my disability, and became a Christian. I was a very quiet and introverted guy still, but I enjoyed my time there. Unfortunately, that wasn’t my happily ever after, and things turned bleak after I graduated.
The first job interview I ever had was with someone who knew about my disability and my accomplishment, but they told me they didn’t think I’d be able to do the job because of it. Since then, there have been several job interviews, but I haven’t had success finding anything yet. I worked several part-time jobs for family-friends, but nothing full-time. I actually did some contract work as an event coordinator for a non-profit organization that helped rehabilitate people who lost their vision, and that’s where I encounter another situation that has been burned into my mind ever since.
It wasn’t something that happened to me, but a client of the non-profit organization I was working for at the time. He was completely blind, but very independent despite his disability. The building the organization was in was only a block away from the light rail station, but on his way from the light rail to our building, someone grabbed his cane, wrestled it out of his hands, and walked away with it. The cameras outside the building caught the culprit on video walk by our building while twirling the cane around like a toy, and the man he stole it from had to figure out how to cross the street without his cane and get to our building.
For a couple years I did work as a receptionist at a dental office, but I was quickly allocated to working in the back because I was too slow at checking patients in and out. It was a full month before I was allowed to work the front desk, and only got the opportunity to prove myself because someone called in sick and we were understaffed. Unfortunately, I couldn’t celebrate my victory for too long. I recall getting yelled at by patients for being too slow quite a few times, and even overheard a conversation between two co-workers about how people shouldn’t be allowed have children if there’s a high chance they are born with some kind of defect.
Being in that environment made me miserable, so I eventually quit that job moved back home, and decided to study to become a teacher. Of course, that really wasn’t what I wanted to do, my parents and I just figured that since they were desperate for teachers there was a better chance I could get hired. I haven’t gotten hired yet, and I’m currently working as a substitute teacher until I can find a career. However, if I’m being honest, I enjoy writing.
I like writing stories, blogs, and creating stories for podcasts. I could probably do this for the rest of my life, but it feels like a pipe dream. Something I can’t control. It feels like it is up to others whether or not I’m going to be successful, but that hasn’t stopped me yet. I enjoy horror, mystery, and mythology. I have a strange and goofy sense of humor, and somehow, no matter how miserable I get, or how the odds stack against me, I always find a way.
People told me that I was dumb and didn’t belong in the school system with normal kids, but I proved them wrong when I excelled academically. People told me I was slow, but I proved them wrong when I received a scholarship to run in college, and I even had the opportunity to compete at an international level (that’s a story for another time). People have told me several times that I wasn’t good enough, but I proved them wrong again and again.
As long as I am able, I’ll continue writing, making content, and pray for the day when I can realize my dream. I’ve exceeded people’s expectations more than once before in the arena known as school. Now I have a new arena, a new audience, and a new opponent. Once again, I am the underdog, the outcast, and the dark horse, but that’s nothing new. If I’m being totally honest, I kind of dig that reputation.