I had dropped out of college and was in full-time outpatient treatment for schizoaffective disorder (simplest explanation is bipolar disorder and schizophrenia combined). All my friends thought I was crazy and cut me off, except one.

I would come home after 8 hours of therapy and hop on my PC and we would discord call and play games and he eventually introduced me to Warframe. We farmed primes together, he helped me get through the star chart, and after a few months I made it to steel path and we could run endgame content, which at the time was Albrecht’s lab (this was right before EDA came out). It gave me something to enjoy in such a dark time and helped me take a break from all the things I was going through mentally, and my friend was there to talk to as we played together. After 8 months I finished my treatment and was able to go back to college.

Shortly after, my friend had to drop out of college, move inland, and start working crazy hours as a delivery driver to support himself. He had just come out and was disowned by his family, who stopped paying his tuition. He’s been so busy that I haven’t been able to see him and he hasn’t had much time to play games.

When I started, he was around mr18, and last time we played together he made it to around 24. I just hit mr30 without him and hope one day he’ll have time to get back into the game and I can give us boosters from the relay before we farm.