When I was 16, I threw a very important party--a farewell for my first patient as a hospice volunteer. Amid Chinese food, flowers and opera music (his favorite things), he told me: "Death is not to be feared; it's just another adventure."As a Stanford student, I volunteered for a Bay Area hospice and became an honorary big sister to six adolescent girls whose parents were dying. After I graduated, I worked for an NGO and volunteered at Mother Teresa’s clinic in Addis Ababa, throwing parties for disabled orphaned children and sitting with people dying from AIDS and tuberculosis. By the end of that year in Ethiopia, my heart was exhausted. I knew I had yet to learn how to maintain true compassion amid deep suffering.When I returned to San Francisco, a friend invited me to a meditation class. In the stillness of the meditation hall, I found tears of recognition sliding down my cheeks. Later, the meditation teacher, who was also a software architect, recommended that I learn to code to strengthen my mind for meditation.That advice launched my career working on technology projects for organizations ranging from software start-ups to major financial institutions to Facebook. I’m bringing together what I’ve learned in software development and in my meditation practice to explore the intersection of technology and compassion - currently at Help Texts, which offers a simple, effective model for providing grief and mental heath support.