ELON, N.C. (WGHP) — Most people in their 20s haven’t thought about what will happen after they die, but Aidan Steinbach, 25, isn’t like most people.
“Death has been repetitive and constant in my life,” Steinbach told FOX8’s Katie Nordeen during a recent conversation over Zoom from his home in San Francisco. “I became very used to death, and it fundamentally changed the way that I think about the world.”
Steinbach’s mom Michelle Mayer, a respected scholar and professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, died of Scleroderma in 2008. She battled the rare autoimmune disease for more than a decade. Steinbach was seven years old.
“My mom left a gift for every birthday until I turned 18, and each gift was a lesson that she wished she could have taught me,” Steinbach said. “My mom left me ties because people judge you first on your appearance and second on who you are. She left me Hardy Boys books because it’s important to be curious and adventurous in life. She left me a compass, and I actually have a tattoo of a compass on my forearm because life is hard, and it is confusing and disorienting, and in those hard and difficult moments, you have to know what your true north is, and that’s how you can weather any storm.”…