Juan Magdaraog On Overcoming Disability

An Interview by Liz

Juan Magdaraog is your normal everyday guy. He’s into tech, sports, movie, TV shows, games while his two big loves are Macs and Ferraris. He wakes up around 9 or 10am, eat breakfast, do his morning routine and then stay glued to the computer until 2 or 3 am blogging and communicating with his clients. There’s not much difference between Dickoy (as he is fondly called) and you but for one small thing: he has one of the world’s rarest diseases called Pompe. He has been confined in a wheelchair for the past 17 years and can no longer breathe on his own so he’s connected to a bi-pap machine 24/7.

This interview, however, is not about his disease. It is about him. It’s about how he managed to view his disability as a powerful motivation to make something out of himself. He cultivated his “this” abilities and managed to become an inspiring personality in his country. Instead of dwelling on the things he can never do because of Pompe, he focused on the Internet and became a blogger, freelance writer, and owner of Sparkplug Studios. Find out more after the jump!

What are your “this” abilities? How did you develop them and continue developing them?
I consider web designing to be one of my “this abilities”. Most of the things that I’m doing now I learned on my own. While I got my design fundamentals from college, my web design skills were courtesy of books and the internet.
Another skill that I’m proud of is writing. You see, over the years my hand dexterity has deteriorated to a point where my abilities to draw or paint are severely limited. So I turned to writing. While I’m not by any means a good writer, I do okay with blog posts and short articles. Writing is therapeutic for me because it allows me to convey what I feel. Most of my writing though has been limited to tech stories (mostly Mac related). My blog serves as the only outlet I have for other topics. Although I haven’t had time to update it recently, I plan to revive it in the near future.

What was the inspiration behind Sparkplug Studios? What difficulties did you overcome in building your own start-up company?

Sparkplug Studios was born out of necessity. I knew that if I wanted to work I would need to create my own opportunities rather than expect people to give them to me. I didn’t see myself working in a corporate environment so the logical step would be to go into business. Although the past year hasn’t been good for Sparkplug Studios and we have had to wind down operations.

What other projects are you currently handling?

Right now I have a contract with a client for short-term, full-time work. That’s what I’m concentrating on right now but I still have a few side projects such as creating the website for our non-profit organization (www.psod.org.ph).

Your last posts discussed your thoughts on faith. How has your faith in God helped you in dealing with Pompe?
I wouldn’t say I’m a very religious person. In fact in that aspect I think I’m still sorely lacking. I do have faith though – I believe in God, His greatness and His goodness. I’m certain that without God I would not have survived this long. There are a lot of things in my life that have been nothing short of a miracle, believe it or not. I shouldn’t really even be alive today but yet I’m here talking to you. I almost died when I was nineteen. Doctors said I wouldn’t live past the age of thirty but I believe that God made it possible.

I believe faith is a very personal subject. It’s really between you and your God. I don’t want to impose my faith to others but I will share it with people who are willing to listen.
What is your philosophy on life, the universe, and everything?

I believe that we’re put on this earth to make a difference in other people’s lives. This is so much evident now as we’re going through the devastation of Typhoon Ondoy. I see people’s heroism. That’s the reason why we’re here on earth. Somehow, in the course of our lives, we just forget it. In times of hardships though we remember it. We just need to live it everyday instead of just times of crisis.

Another thing is just to try and be the best that you can be. You may not be the best in the field you want to get into but you should still work on maximizing your full potential.

What are the lessons you learned in your difficult journey against the disease?

Life goes on no matter what. Life doesn’t stop because you’re sick or what. You need to push forward and move on. Also it doesn’t mean if you’re sick or have a disability that you can’t do anything anymore. You need to find something you can do and do that.

Disability is like a wall that’s put in front of you that you can’t climb but that doesn’t mean you can’t go around it. So you need to focus on things that you can do and not what you can’t and try your best doing that.

What’s next for Juan Magdaraog?

Honestly, right now I’m not sure yet. All I know is I want my life to matter. Working for me right now is a means to an end. I work because I want to save up and be financially independent so I can do the things that are important to me such as trying to help people with rare disorders.

I just pray that God gives me the strength to continue fighting through Pompe disease so I can do other things that matter.

This Interview was published on October 4, 2009 at 9:58 pm • Did you like it? Subscribe!
Submit to Reddit or StumbleUpon or Digg • Del.icio.us