I’m very proud of my housemate:

I am a woman who loves her space, so accepting a housemate was hard for me, but I could not leave a young person out in the cold. Okay. It’s August in Texas, but nothing chills like heartbreak, confusion, and feeling like you have to give up.

I will respect his privacy, but I am just so proud of him. Such a good human.

Here is what I posted about him on Facebook:

I am a proud not-mom: I have a great Dane with me. He’s a 21-yo dev student from Denmark. Why is he great? He lost his housing when he and his girlfriend broke up. He has no money for rent in Austin, so I told him and the dev school that he could stay. Here’s what I love about him. He is an excellent student. He just gets it right away. Instead of doing his homework and coming home to watch TV or improve his work on his own in his room, he stays at the school and helps his classmates, often staying until after 9p. And he loves it. He loves learning out to teach others and feels proud of his classmates when they do well. He feels guilty that he cannot pay rent, but he does. He pays it forward without expectation of recognition or reward, and that is his rent. That’s what makes him a great Dane. And he lavishes attention on my dogs, so … Winner winner kibble dinner.

When I was struggling with the speech API, he looked at my code and convinced me it was my computer’s settings. I cannot test my code on my own computer and have to commit and push every stinking time. Just my laptop. What have I done? I’d have lost my mind without his help. He tells me that he did nothing, and that my code was fine, but he sat with me and read and tested it. He didn’t walk by and go to bed. Sure, my code was fine, but my frustration level was not. I still have to commit and push, refresh, rinse, lather, repeat, but at least I know the API part works. And like I said above, that’s rent enough.

Oh, and he’s promised to help me pronounce “red porridge with cream” in Danish.

Here’s to you, my Great Dane! You’re awesome inside and out.