Trading two stories about teen boys

On the way to our shop this afternoon, I listened to The End—107.7. The dj brought up this news story about a teen from Singapore who died from playing air guitar. The boy, studying at Hua Business School, lived on the third floor of a youth hostel. Back in November, he was jumping exuberantly on his bed, playing air guitar. Things got out of control, and the boy fell out of the window of his room, falling to his death.

The dj said that if he had to go playing air guitar, he’d want to be playing to the sounds of Get on the Snake by Soundgarden. After we’d been working for awhile, I asked Lew what song he’d want to go to, if it was his fate to die while playing air guitar. After the quizzical, “get the net” looks and my quick explanation, he replied, “Great White Buffalo by Ted Nugent,” accompanied by a snippet of shred-metal air guitar.

Lew shared with me a story about a teen he heard on the radio earlier in the day. An autistic boy in New York, who had been a basketball manager throughout his high school days, got the chance to play in the last four minutes of his team’s final home game. During those four minutes, the boy proceeded to sink six 3-point shots, scoring a total of twenty points for his team.

Two boys doing what they love, their outcomes arriving at such different conclusions. I guess this highlights to me the importance of reaching out and grasping each day, because you never know when that time will arrive—it could be while you’re playing air guitar.