Photo courtesy of Silicon Valley Historical Association

My unpublished memoir, currently entitled The Archangel’s Garden, describes my journey through faith, politics, and anxiety.

The story opens during my years in Catholic elementary school. I am a conscientious student and take the religious teachings seriously, particularly the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule. Some of these tenets manifest themselves in scrupulosity, as I become obsessed with avoiding moral guilt. I also develop a close and dependent relationship with my mother, while admiring my father from a distance.

In college, I join a student-run political newspaper, and my colleagues introduce me to libertarianism. I read about this philosophy of freedom and start to question the Catholic views of my youth. At the same time, my colleagues and I focus on taking down the University Administration and its insidious Code of Student Conduct.

Having become interested in the constitutional aspects of liberty, I decide to attend law school. I become disillusioned with the law but find solace both in the world of publishing and in the friendship of a young business student, who becomes a romantic interest. Meanwhile, my OCD symptoms hover in the background.

After graduation, I begin to feel lost and depressed, but I eventually find a job with a small research institute. My OCD symptoms grow severe, and I face the biggest interpersonal, psychological, and spiritual crisis of my young life.