Hello, my name is Max Beaton. I would have been able to write this brief introduction much sooner but, unfortunately, I had the text color set to “black” and could not figure out why I couldn’t see anything that I was typing. At any rate, the past is the past so here it goes:

The most important thing to know about me is that I love reading and writing as both of these activities have followed me throughout my life and provided me with the ability to dream and create. However, I have found that the actual act of writing only makes up a small portion of what it means to be a writer. A writer, to me, is someone who not only shares the subjective lens from which they view the world via their writing, but who is constantly placing themself in new (often uncomfortable) situations in order to absorb as much real-world experience as possible. I have taken this philosophy with me throughout my life and it–in turn–has done the same.

I was raised primarily by my father’s side of the family (my paternal grandparents, my dad, and my brother) who are of Cuban descent, so that culture colored my perspective growing up. I was lucky to have a great family that I was very close with–particularly my brother–and we remain that way. When I was in high school my brother joined the Army National Guard and I thought that sounded pretty cool, so a few months later I did the same once I turned 17. I enlisted as a combat medic and served six years in an artillery unit. While we never deployed overseas over the course of my contract, I served on active-duty orders throughout the COVID pandemic at various nursing homes and testing sites which was a memorable experience to say the least.

Outside of the military, I volunteered and worked as an EMT for a long time and met practically all of my closest friends in this line of employment. More recently, in 2022 I became a firefighter after a good friend suggested that we both give it a try. So far, the fire department has been a very interesting experience for me, and I look forward to seeing where it takes me.

To make a long story short, I have involved myself in some interesting organizations over the years. These jobs have provided me with knowledge of fields that I never would have dreamed of being involved in when I was a kid and opened up many doors. Perhaps best of all, they introduced me to some of the funniest, strangest, and most intelligent people I have ever met (as well as the reverse side of the coin). I hope that graduate school proves to be another such door.