I think this was an incredible arc for you and am glad I could see you go through it. A lot of people have rough patches in life and it can be hard to ever commit to something and prove that you still have the ability to dedicate yourself. I went through a not to disimilar thing at my final year of uni. I've always told myself I was fairly clever but just didn't apply myself, however, at some point you start to doubt if you have it in you to do at all. I did fortunately do quite well in the end but now have insane amounts of unfounded ego.

All in all, happy to see you both enjoy and excel and coffee related activities. Hope to see you be awesome in other things as well.

• not Shake because he would never be nice to you.

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it is quite fulfilling to find something to apply yourself to and it's been cool hearing about all of the antics you have got up to in your barista-ing time. i think it is inevitable for the interest to somewhat take a toll if you are doing it full time and at anti-social hours though, it sounds like a pretty demanding job, so it seems like it is the right move for the mental to move on from it professionally but it doesn't mean you have to give up on the stuff you do in your free time at least - presumably the competitions and stuff were all extra-curricular. it is also pretty cool to have clear evidence of your own ability to apply yourself to stuff and i empathise with the fear of forgetting experiences which is why i am so anal about photographs and cataloguing. as long as you continue to seek out experiences that you don't want to forget then you're probably doing something right though.

• barold