I had a bad feeling, yesterday, when my boss Linc grabbed my arm and asked me if I could come into the board room for a minute. The first thing that popped into my mind was that someone on the team had given their notice. I wish it had been that.

Aaron P., one of my friends, and one of our team of developers had committed suicide. He hadn't been to work in a few days, and a good friend (and other co-worker) went to check on him and found him.

I was just starting to get to know Aaron, as our paths really just started to cross from some workgroups that we were in together. At first, I (admittedly) didn't get along with him because we were both strong personalities and in my experience, cocky guys don't always get along well with other cocky guys. Aaron was cocky, but that was cool because Aaron was smart and could back it up. He was young, so we all just kind of knew that he was proving himself, and he did. He was the kind of developer that always knew the cutting edge tools, way before you did. And you'd just sit in a meeting with him and nod, as though you'd heard of this killer app too, while secretly writing down it's name so you could research it when you got back to your desk. Believe me, I was guilty of doing this more than once.

So, now he's gone. And my heart hurts for the pain he must've felt that drove him to this. Those of you who know me well know that I've not had a favorable history with loved ones and suicide. I hate it. I hate it's essence and I hate that good people are so tortured inside that they fall by it.

My thoughts are with Aaron's family and his closest of friends. Especially his four-year-old son. His dad was a good man.