A's story is long with high highs and very low lows, and I certainly don't know it all. He's not one to talk about himself much.
A long time ago, we met as two members of a robotics team. While he was not what you would call talkative, he was always interested in talking about the latest tech, or about how he set up remote desktop on his iphone to play Eve on his desktop at home. Other than that, he was pretty quiet. While he often looked very tired and uninterested, he was a vital part of the team and showed his passion for the team more and more as time went on. He was a very industrious worker and loved to get things done. Those qualities have not changed to this day. But back then, he had many troubles plaguing him.
He dealt with OCD, anxiety, depression, chronic fatigue, and social deficits we now suspect were attributable to autism. On some days, his anxiety was palpable. He would keep distance from the group, both physically and with his energy. On others, he was exhausted. It's a fond memory now, but he would sleep on the cart we rolled our robot around on during competitions. He also slept underneath the table our team stayed at during the events. It's a funny thing to reminisce about, but it was a clear indication he was suffering from something.
His OCD was a terrible obstacle for him. My memory's hazy, but he once told me about the event that made it clear he had to get help for OCD. He had a panic attack one day as he was about to ride home from Chick-fil-A. It was too intense too ignore. He couldn't shake the feeling that the napkins he took from the restaurant had to be thrown out inside the building, not at home. Brains can torture their host over nothing sometimes.
Despite all of this, he found a unique friendship with another member of our team, who was the one who invited him. And the difficulties of the competitions made for long-lasting friendships between all of us. Maybe next post I'll talk about his real character arc... How he got introduced to programming, got over his own self-doubt, and became passionate about helping others follow a similar path.
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That's it for this post. Have a good one y'all.
PS. I might add comments to these. Not sure if anyone is gonna read these still, but if I find the time I will.
Thanks,
~Soda