Hope

In response to Kathy’s note…

I’ve been a fan of Kathy Sierra ever since I saw her speak at South by Southwest Interactive in 2006. For a long time, I had been struggling with my identity as a professional; a masters degree from UC Berkeley goes a long way towards advancing a career, but it wasn’t until I heard Kathy speak and read her blog that I found my own voice to describe what I had learned, to describe my feelings about digital design.

In a way, she changed my life.

That’s why I’m saddened and distraught to no end about what happened to her. I’ve seen terrible things happen to good people, and in that moment all you can do is react and empathize. So Kathy — if you end up in or near San Francisco again, let me know and I’ll happily lend my imposing visage to scare off the Internet scum when you’re out and about. It’s the least I can offer.

Also, I have to commend her on her willingness to write publicly about the ordeal. Others would be afraid to even speak of this, but she came forward with poise and clarity to describe the events and her feelings. I can’t imagine how hard that must have been, and I hope that it’s the first step towards living a normal life again.

I’m usually more verbose than this, but anything else I could say about how the Internet breeds malcontents or how humans interpret text communications has been said before (probably by Kathy, and certainly much better than I could state it). Kathy’s writings have meant a lot to me, but whether or not she returns to speaking and writing isn’t nearly as important as her health and safety.