Template:Featured Articles/14-2020

Moment of Awesome - Sooraya Qadir/Dust: A near-miss with Alex Summers on his skateboard turns into a reminder for Sooraya to take a break, now and then. "A boy can dream." He shrugged, rocking back slightly. "You can't tell me you've never even thought about saying screw it and trying something ridiculous and dangerous." "I think almost everyone has done that once or twice. Including me..." Sooraya laughed. "In practice I was more of the sane woman of the crew though." "It doesn't count if you're trying to be the voice of reason. I mean just like... cut loose and say I'm going bungee jumping today. I mean, I'm saving that for my thirtieth, but you get what I'm saying. Be impulsive." "You may have point there." Sooraya replied with a smile, but her eyes turned sad. Alex was a lot of things, but oblivious wasn't one of them. "Hey, I'm sorry," he said, pushing himself up and tugging his helmet off. "I didn't mean to upset you. Unsurprisingly, my mouth moves faster than my brain sometimes." "Don't worry about it, Alex. I'm not really upset." Sooraya quickly pushed the emotion away. "I just realized something and that saddened me a bit." "What is it? If you want to talk about it, I mean." "That it's a good thing that young people have that chance. But that there are also many who didn't or don't have that chance and I was wondering how much they are missing." Sooraya explained. "You're a young people," Alex pointed out, raising an eyebrow. "You're younger than me. Do you feel like you're missing anything?" "No, not really. But you've to admit, Alex... we're in something of a refuge. Many out there can't say that... really having to watch themselves." Sooraya explained. Alex frowned back. "I'm aware. I spend all day going through terrible news stories sometimes and getting mad about it. But that's all the more reason to take advantage of downtime when you have it. No one is going to be helped by you burning yourself out." "I know you do." Sooraya nodded. "And I know it's important to have downtime. There just don't seem to be many chances for that nowadays." "Sometimes ya gotta make time," Alex said, shrugging. "Even if that time is three a.m. watching stupid movies with your dog while your wife is asleep." "I used to do that with friends sometimes." Sooraya's eyes lit up at least a little at the memory. "Thanks Alex. I think I need a little reminding." Alex gave her a two-fingered salute. "Always happy to remind people they gotta relax."