Tiny bit of backstory to this --
I just started a new job (my first job actually - at age 28 - but that's a whole nother dramatic story). I'm a home care aide. I decided that the only way my mental health was gonna be able to handle work was gonna be if I was helping people.
So my client tells me last night she's gonna have an overnight guest tonight. A backpacker who hiked all the way from San Diego to Seattle. She's gonna give up her bed for him and sleep in a zero grav chair. This lady has more diagnoses and pain problems than I can even remember and she was willing (no demanded) she give up her bed for him. That alone made me intrigued.
About 20 minutes after he arrived, he asked me if he could tell his story. He turns to me and with the most genuine look and begins to tell me that he's walked more than 5800 miles in the last few years, almost entirely by himself. He's nearly died from flooding, fire, wildlife... he's woken up in a field full of deer protecting him from a roaming mountain lion... he's seen seal pups kiss on the beach as far from him as I was sitting. And most of all, he did this all with fibro myalgia and sometimes can barely move in the morning. He nearly died because he tripped and fell and the weight of his backpack prevented getting him up. If someone hadn't seen him and stopped he'd be dead.
His message in all this is not "fuck it, live your dreams, be strong"... it's to marvel in the kindness that does exist in certain people and return said kindness in spades. The only reason he's alive is because of mutual generosity. Without even asking.
After weeks of playing a game about a man who walks across America to bring people together, I couldn't help but well up a bit around the eyeballs as this dude was telling his story.
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Sorry for the tl;dr but I thought the community might enjoy this story. His backpack was about as high and heavy as some of my epic deliveries......
Keep on keeping on <3
gamertag:untitled314159
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