Texting... A Good Thing (8.29.08)

I’m old, so my friends are old, too. At least we are from a teen’s perspective. (Sorry friends).

My ‘old’ friends and I don’t completely understand this whole instant messaging and texting world. We’ve all said to our kids and other young people, “why don’t you just call the person?” as their thumbs and fingers fly over keys the size of atoms.

The response… that blank look that silently screams, “Duh! You’re so old.”

And, then the ‘old’ parent gets the cell phone bill and, after picking oneself off the floor, not-so-silently screams back, “How in blue-blazes did you send 2,321 text messages last month?! Do you realize that’s 86 messages a day! What were you talking about?? No wonder you ‘didn’t have time’ to finish your science project or send a thank you to grandma!”

The response… that blank look that silently screams, “Duh! You’re so old.”

Well, last night sitting by Sam’s bed, I couldn’t have been more excited to see a teen texting! Sam’s thumbs and fingers were flying across the tiny keys and the buzzing of responses just kept coming. For a minute there, I thought Sam had put a quarter in a ‘magic fingers’ bed. (Sorry teens, only the ‘old’ people will get that reference and we’re not going to let you in on the secret!).

Here’s what this very ‘normal’ teen activity signaled to me:

1. Both of Sam’s hands were working and working in sync. You may recall in our early posts how Sam’s right arm and hand weren’t responding to commands. Then, the excitement we felt when he unscrewed a water bottle. NOW he is typing with both hands! TYPING!!

2. He was typing fast which told me that he was translating thoughts to intention to action. And he was doing so without hesitation! WOW. Just three weeks ago he was in a coma. Yesterday he was purposeful in his mental, behavioral and physical actions.

3. He’s able to reconnect personally with his friends. We know it’s been hard on Sam’s friends because they have not be able to talk on the phone, email or visit Sam. And, it’s been hard on Sam, I’m certain. Now they’re getting back in touch with one another. That’s got to be some very good ‘medicine’ for all of them.

I didn’t ask, but I’m pretty sure the text conversations went something like this:

Friend, “What’s up?”

Sam, “Nothing”

Friend, “Cool”

Sam, “What’s up?”

Friend, “Not much”

Sam, “BRB”

Friend, “K”

Sam, “Back”

Friend, “What r u doing?”

Sam, “Watching TV with one of my very cool aunts!”

Again, I don’t know if that was the conversation but if it was, what a symphony! I could watch his fingers flying & listen to those vibrations all day!

Truth be told, we stayed up a bit too late; I didn’t want to make Sam stop texting because it was time for bed. (Can you imagine him texting his friends, “my aunt says I have to go to bed now”? I just couldn’t do that to him.)

But, after a couple times of coming in Sam's room, the nurse got a little unhappy with me because he was still up. So we wrapped it up about 11:30pm. I think next time I’ll just smuggle in a little flashlight so the nurse doesn’t know what he’s doing under the covers after the lights are out!

-- Aunt Dart (Karylinn)

P.S. Stef, sorry about all those text messages on your cell phone bill.