Not Just a Kid
BY: OLIVER LIANG
Images by Winta Assefa
15-year-old Corvin Diaz had a calendar that looked more like a social media influencer’s schedule than that of a typical teenager. Mondays were for snowboarding at the city’s indoor slopes. Tuesdays and Thursdays were dedicated to woodworking, creating multiple life-size structures. Fridays were for hanging out with his friends at the mall or someone’s basement to watch movies. Saturdays and Sundays were dedicated to playing the newest games on his console. And Wednesdays? Wednesdays were “special” days where he conducted cool science experiments, such as building battery-powered contraptions. He had no shortage of things to do. If he wasn’t playing games, he was hanging out with his friends. Corvin did lack one thing though. He lacked the willingness to spare his time for anything that didn’t benefit him immediately.
“Corvin, can you please go wash the dishes?” his mom would call out.
“One second!” he’d shout back while furiously tapping his controller battling giant monsters on his console.
“Corvin, can you help me take out the trash?”
“Can’t right now, I'm working on something!”
“Corvin, can you bring me the groceries?”
“In a bit!”
Each time Corvin promised to do it “later,” but “later” never happened. His mom worked as an elementary school teacher, while his dad worked as a mechanic at their local auto shop. After a tiring day of work, they would often pick up his responsibilities. Corvin barely noticed his parents' hard work. In Corvin’s eyes, these requests were just interruptions standing in the way of his carefully curated life of excitement.
On a normal cold Saturday evening, everything started to change. The wind blew forcefully against the house, snowflakes fell against the windows, and Corvin was idle in his room playing away at his favorite video game. Corvin has been begging his parents to buy a newly released game called Celestia for weeks. Amazed by the graphics and earth-shattering story line, Celestia was his top priority. Smashing away at his controller, Corvin was one click away from beating the hardest boss when…
-click-
The screen went pitch black.
“What?!” Corvin shouted, pressing the power button again and again—nothing happened. He checked the power cable. Still plugged in. His console has shut down. Pondering at what just happened, Corvin tried to flick on the light switch; still no response.
The power cut out.
Groaning, Corvin stomped downstairs, not even bothering to take off his headset. Every step he took reminded him of how much time he’s not spending doing what he loves.
“Mom? Dad?” he called while walking down the stairs. No answer. “Mom? Dad?” Still no answer. As he turned the corner to his kitchen, Corvin saw a dimly lit candle lighting up the dinner table. His mom was scribbling numbers onto a notebook, while his dad stared at a spreadsheet on his old laptop. Corvin opened his mouth to complain, but nothing came out when he heard his mom’s voice.
“We might have to trim the grocery budget again this month. Maybe we can cancel the indoor snowboarding slope subscription for now. That’s an extra 300 dollars we can use towards other payments.”
“And the electric bill has gone up tenfold with all the experiments he’s been doing,” his dad sighed. “Maybe we can talk to him about shutting things off when he’s not using them.”
Corvin stood frozen, unable to produce any word, not even a sound.
“Do we really need to cut back this much? I just don’t want him to feel like we’re not supporting him.” his mom asked, in her tired voice.
“It's fine,” his dad replied in a comforting voice. “We’ve been making it work because we want him to enjoy being a kid. He’s not selfish. He just doesn’t see it yet.”
Corvin stood in the shadows, his heart beating fast, and feeling the weight of his parents' words sink into him, like how hot water melts through the cold snow; quiet, quick, impossible to ignore. All the fun he had snowboarding, gaming, and hanging out with his friends masked the reality of the hard work and sacrifices his parents had made for him.
Corvin turned back and went up the stairs. This time each step reminded him of all the pain he caused his parents. While he was snowboarding, his parents were figuring out how to pay for their groceries; while he was playing video games and building his science experiments, his parents were struggling to keep up with the electricity bill.
Once he got to his room, the electric generator had kicked in—restoring the power. Corvin heard the familiar melodic playing as his console rebooted. Corvin went closer and closer to his console, and pressed the power button. That night, he couldn't fall asleep. The words of his parents replayed in his head like killing bosses in Celestia over and over again. “We might have to trim the grocery budget again this month. Maybe we can cancel the indoor snowboarding slope subscription for now.” It wasn’t just a random power outage. It was a reality check.
The next morning, Corvin woke up with the sun; bright and early. He ran downstairs, grabbed the garbage bin, and took it out to the curb. His mom blinked in surprise sipping her black coffee. The changes didn’t stop there. Instead of spending all his time playing video games on Sunday, Corvin opted to help with chores. He helped his mom clean the whole house, folded laundry, and even helped dad fix their leaky faucet. When his mom offered to make his favorite lunch, grilled cheese sandwiches, Corvin gently declined and decided to make sandwiches for everybody. The changes didn’t stop. Corvin even began to pay attention to all the little things in life. He turned off the light when he left his room, folded his bed sheets, and even walked the dog every morning so his parents could get an extra hour of needed sleep.
It’s not that Corvin stopped having fun. He still built machines and played video games, but now he understood one key value that he never understood in the past. Responsibility. A deeper understanding of the people who shaped his personality, quietly making all of it possible. His friends, his teachers, but most importantly, his parents.
And that was all Corvin had to realize.
📣 What Did You Think?
Your reaction helps us choose the top story of the month and gives the writer some well-deserved love.
Tap a reaction below to tell us how the story made you feel:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hi, my name is Oliver Liang and I am a grade 10 student born in Canada. I love skiing and snowboarding during the winter seasons, and playing tennis during the summer. My inspiration for writing is to share a new perspective to other individuals. In my opinion, learning about different cultures and lifestyles could heavily influence one's perspective of their peers.
