I’ve stopped thinking that I’ve seen it all a really long time ago, just like any mature person. But today I’ve gotten a reminder why I stopped thinking that.

I was taking a short walk when I saw the following scene, in a friendly, brightly lit alleyway surrounded by palm trees: there was one kid, maybe 10 years old, dressed with kneepads and elbow guards, and a skateboard. And then there was the nanny sitting nearby on the curb. The kids nowadays get 24 hours surveillance, not a single minute is unaccounted for, I got used to seeing that.

But then there was also the skateboard teacher. In my neighbourhood I’m used to seeing kids with swimming teachers, personal trainers, dancing instructors, meditation teachers, and many more, in the “assisted living” lifestyles they are made to live in nowadays. But I’ve never seen a skateboard teacher, not in real life, anyways. He was dressed to look the part, in baggy trousers, XXL-shirt and boy-band style just-out-of-bed waxed-up hair. He was instructing the kid to push up the little, slightly sloped ramp leading up the curb to the abandoned Starbucks, and then turn around and roll back down again. The kid stepped on his skateboard, awkwardly, and tried his best to follow the instructions. Pushing up, and rolling back down. All without smiling, without falling, and a question on his face, “Did I do it right?”

I was staring at the scene listlessly. I was thinking, George Orwell, the author of the book 1984, he might have envisioned it all, but he too, hasn’t envisioned that.

Skateboarding, by definition, is a movement of rebels, of loners, of youngsters who are commited to doing things their own way. It’s learned through trial and error, by jumping off things until something breaks, or the trick is landed – either one, there is no other way. And maybe some of it is learned through imitation —but certainly not through instruction. Or if it is, not like this.

Well. I sighted, accepting the end of the world as I knew it. At least these kids are still allowed to go downstairs – downstairs into their distopian, The Matrix style world. At least they are getting some fresh air and a few minutes off swiping their phones. I guess that’s already something.