Teenagers Use Online Gaming to Wish an 11 Year Old Happy Birthday During Isolation
During my morning phone check as we all do before we emerge from our beds, I came across a sweet story about the power or video games.
Tiffany Pitts, a proud mother, shared a story on Facebook about her teenage son playing video games online during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Have a read:
An Argument In Favor of Video Games From a Quarantined Mother
#Quaranteens #WTFparenting
My15 yo son has spent every second of his free time during this pandemic hanging out online, playing video games with his friends. He started by ranking up to the elite tiers of Apex Legends.
I am told this is quite a feat. Honestly, I believe it because it took him and his friend 6 hours a day for a week to rank that high.
After that came Sea of Thieves. He joined up with more friends and sailed the digital oceans until piracy lost it’s shine. Also, when two friends started arguing in game.
2 nights ago they made a plan to meet up as a big group on Fortnight. None of them really play Fortnight much anymore because the crowd is a little younger. But they didn’t want to work too hard at playing, they just wanted to hang out.
Last night, six of them met up again on Fortnight to hang out and play. They were goofing off, doing stupid teenager stuff, when they met a solo player named JamMaster.
Sometimes if they meet solo players that are pretty chill, they’ll join forces. JamMaster seemed pretty young but he was by himself and they were having fun showing him what they knew about the game. They invited him to join their crew.
Pretty soon they discovered that their first impressions were correct. JamMaster WAS much younger than they were – only 10 years old. They also discovered that it was his birthday in the morning.
The boys realized that JamMaster had been hanging out by himself all night, on the eve of his 11th birthday- which he would be spending by himself in quarantine.
CLEARLY SOMETHING HAD TO BE DONE.
Y’ALL, THEY THREW HIM AN 11TH BIRTHDAY PARTY.
They took him on a bunch of adventures, gave him all the loot they could, helped him win a few battles, and made his stay up until midnight so they could all sing happy birthday to him.
This morning, as my son told me about their adventures and all the fun they had, I started to cry. I was trying to say something like “Oh that’s so nice” but tears just started spilling down my cheeks. He could not understand why.
But…but…
CAN YOU IMAGINE? The disappointment of being quarantined for your 11th birthday only to be met by a random six-pack of teenage gamers who decide you’re awesome and want to throw you a birthday party?
What a roller coaster. What an experience. What an incredible thing to do for a young gamer.
In conclusion: video games, hell yeah.
I found this story particularly moving, considering how much negative press the media has attempted to spin on video games in recent history, especially in regards to Fortnite. This firsthand experience from a proud mother shows that video games have proven to bring people together during the hard times that the world is currently going through and that they have made it possible for a group of teenagers to give an 11 year old a very happy birthday.
Well done Tiffany Pitts, you’ve raised a fine son!
Source: Tiffany Pitts (via Facebook)