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A Letter About A Friend

Decent Essays

My eyes wandered as I sat in a quiet coffee shop, searching for inspiration. I had been developing a mobile application for a client and gotten stuck trying to fix a particularly nasty bug. Suddenly, I felt the chill of cold air as the door next to me cracked open, and I saw a frail lady cautiously make her way to the barista and ask for a cup of water. As I continued to watch her, she left the shop and took a seat on a curb next to a small plastic bag, likely containing all her belongings. She began shivering, and I felt a deep need to do something. I ran to the supermarket next door and returned with a large container of water along with a gift card and a blanket. But the lady had disappeared. It didn 't take long for me to find her trying to keep warm next a building vent. Our exchange was similarly brief. Nevertheless, I felt a lasting sense of gratification and fulfillment. It wasn 't because I fancied myself a hero or mistakenly thought that I had changed a woman 's life with a single act of kindness. It was because I knew what it was like to experience need and to have someone show that they care. This sense of gratification was something I rarely experienced in college although it was something that I had longed for. After all, computer science, despite being an exciting way to solve complex problems, can be rather impersonal. In this moment, I began to challenge a promise that I made to myself many years ago. When I was ten, I decided that I would never become a

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