azgirl
Senior member
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2014
- Messages
- 961
- Reason
- PALS
- Diagnosis
- 12/2013
- Country
- US
- State
- AZ
- City
- Tucson
My nephew wrote this for May ALS awareñess. A tribute to all of us ALS fighters...
already it's may. baseball has been back for a month. the days are growing longer. sometimes, they start to blur together. it all becomes routine. I wake up in the morning and drive into work. I go to the meetings, then sit at the computer. I put on headphones and open up eclipse, and I sit there and write code. enterprise java code, web services. and days will go by, then a month, a year. sometimes, driving home I'll think, is that it? shouldn't there be more?
--
but it's easy to forget how much that is. I mean: all the way down. like when I'm sitting at the computer and start to think, and somewhere inside my head, my human operating system, something fires. then the interrupt handlers, network calls, the memory paging in and out, somehow all of these pieces fall into place, and work their way down, and then like magic, my finger moves. it presses a key. then another, another one right behind it. soon every finger is moving in a display of astounding parallelism.
--
it was 10 years ago this summer that my aunt Kay got me started learning how to program, diving head first into java. she's one of those, I'm her nephew, but it's true - the great teachers. one of those that students write to 10, 20, 30 years later, to tell her what a difference she made in their lives and careers. I think about that summer and what she has meant to me.
--
anyway, it's may, and may is ALS awareness month and this is the third year my aunt has been living with ALS. I remember when she was diagnosed I didn't know - I knew, 'ALS.. Lou Gehrig.. the baseball player..', not that there was no cure or even treatment, or how quickly it meant she would be trapped, her own operating system shutting down, in a wheelchair. now she can't move her finger.
--
so it brings things into perspective. I see my aunt, read about so many others like her battling this disease, see the strength of their will to keep on living. it makes me think about all I've got and how much there is in even the most routine day at work. it makes me think of all these people. the scientists and doctors and researches, and what can I, what can anyone do to help them
#MakeALSHistory
#FindACure
#Now
The ALS Association -- ALS.net
already it's may. baseball has been back for a month. the days are growing longer. sometimes, they start to blur together. it all becomes routine. I wake up in the morning and drive into work. I go to the meetings, then sit at the computer. I put on headphones and open up eclipse, and I sit there and write code. enterprise java code, web services. and days will go by, then a month, a year. sometimes, driving home I'll think, is that it? shouldn't there be more?
--
but it's easy to forget how much that is. I mean: all the way down. like when I'm sitting at the computer and start to think, and somewhere inside my head, my human operating system, something fires. then the interrupt handlers, network calls, the memory paging in and out, somehow all of these pieces fall into place, and work their way down, and then like magic, my finger moves. it presses a key. then another, another one right behind it. soon every finger is moving in a display of astounding parallelism.
--
it was 10 years ago this summer that my aunt Kay got me started learning how to program, diving head first into java. she's one of those, I'm her nephew, but it's true - the great teachers. one of those that students write to 10, 20, 30 years later, to tell her what a difference she made in their lives and careers. I think about that summer and what she has meant to me.
--
anyway, it's may, and may is ALS awareness month and this is the third year my aunt has been living with ALS. I remember when she was diagnosed I didn't know - I knew, 'ALS.. Lou Gehrig.. the baseball player..', not that there was no cure or even treatment, or how quickly it meant she would be trapped, her own operating system shutting down, in a wheelchair. now she can't move her finger.
--
so it brings things into perspective. I see my aunt, read about so many others like her battling this disease, see the strength of their will to keep on living. it makes me think about all I've got and how much there is in even the most routine day at work. it makes me think of all these people. the scientists and doctors and researches, and what can I, what can anyone do to help them
#MakeALSHistory
#FindACure
#Now
The ALS Association -- ALS.net
