Our Charlie is, or at least should be, the poster child for the YouTube Generation. He lives his life by YouTube. In fact, earlier this week, he flew across the country to LA to hang out with, work with and live with (temporarily) the YouTubers whose work he’s been editing for the past year.
Our Charlie is living the dream, hanging out in a mansion in Hollywood Hills and shopping on Rodeo Drive. And he’s comfortable for perhaps the first time in years, having found a group of creative, non-conformist young people who accept him for who he is and appreciate his talents. He’s happy.
And so, yesterday, when he Facetimed (another bizarre Star Trek-like phenomenon) Steve and I and asked if he could stay longer, not only weren’t we surprised, but we were happy for our youngest. Thrilled, in fact, even though we miss him and his unique humor, hugs and sweetness more than I can say.
As we were chatting about his extended stay, I asked Charlie what he needed, if anything, for us to send. He asked for a couple of things and then I suggested clothing. He told me he brought all the clothes he’d actually wear out there (the others weren’t cool enough, no doubt), but he would have to do laundry.
Now, Charlie learned how to do laundry in middle school as part of his Life Skills class. And I taught him how to do laundry as part of my Life Skills training. But what he said after he told me he’d have to do laundry, and after he mentioned that he didn’t know how (really?!), and after I offered to walk him through the process on Facetime, is, “I’ll pull it up on YouTube and figure it out.” End of discussion. YouTube. As long as the kid has a phone and Wifi, everything else is just extra.
Nancy Wiley writes. 