Jayson Nuñez - Hot Wheels

 

All right. All right, all right, all right. [audience laughter] Okay. So, it was two weeks before my birthday, and I'm sitting in my room thinking of what I wanted as a gift. This wasn't going to be no ordinary gift, because I was turning seven. Turning seven is a really big deal for me, because seven is basically 10, 10’s basically a teenager, teenager's basically an adult. [audience laughter] So, like adults do, I wanted to get that one expensive present that was going to last me a long time. Not like a toy set that I would play with for two months and then next thing, it's collecting dust in my closet. 

 

So, I go up to my parents and I'm like, “Hey, could we go Toys“R”Us.” So, the next day, we go Toys“R”Us. They're showing me all these toys. It's like these jigsaw puzzles, action figures, and everything. Nothing was really catching my eye. So, I wandered away. When I wandered away, I found myself in the bike aisle. It was just immediate. I look up at least 20ft, 30ft, and I see the beautiful Bumblebee yellow Hummer bike with matte black tire seat and handlebars. [audience laughter] It was like those scenes in the movies where it's like you in that one thing in a dark room and a light shining on it, like right now. [audience laughter] My feet were gravitating towards it, but my legs weren't moving. There was even this angelic music in the background, all I heard was [sings] [audience laughter] I've had my sister's bike, I've had my brother's bike, I've even had my dad's bike, which is like falling to bits and pieces at this point. 

 

So, I run straight to my parents, and I'm like, “Hey, hey, hey. This is the bike that I want.” I show them, I'm pointing straight up. [audience laughter] And then, they're looking up, looking at me, looking at each other, look back up and they're like, “Yeah, we'll think about it.” And I was like, I'm just telling them, “This has to be it.” Even though I knew it was expensive because it was on the high-high shelf, and it was one of those bikes you had to contact the front desk for. [audience laughter] So, yeah, they're like, “Sure, we'll think about it.” 

 

And I go home, and finally, my birthday comes. And on my birthday, unfortunately, it was on a Monday, so I had to go to school. So, I went to school, came back home and we're doing all the normal birthday things, like they're singing Happy Birthday. I'm opening gifts from my brother and my sister, and then we eat dinner. And then, my dad finally comes up to me, and he's like, “Hey, we have a surprise for you.” And I'm like, “A surprise? For me?” [audience laughter] Like, “What's the occasion?” [audience laughter] He nods off my sarcasm, and he brings me to the backyard. And the funny thing about our backyard is we have this really heavy metal door, and it has five locks on it. So, he's unlocking the top lock and the middle lock and the other middle lock and then he finally swings the huge door open and there it is, the beautiful Bumblebee yellow Hummer bike with matte black tire seat and handlebars. [audience laughter] 

 

And I was in complete awe. I'm going straight to the bike. I'm adjusting the seat for when I was going to ride it. I was touching the tires, making sure there's enough air, adjusting the gears and I was just feeling all over the frame. [chuckles] I literally picked up the bike, and I was about to leave. My dad looks at me, he's like, “Where you going?” And I'm, like, “Going to bike ride.” And he's like, “No, it's 08:00 PM. You're seven years old. Not going to happen.” [audience laughter] I was crushed, but of course, I could wait. And I did wait. 

 

So, the next day is Tuesday, the day after that's Wednesday and Thursday. And each single day, I'm opening the curtains to our backyard, and I'm looking at that bike and I'm like, “Oh, coming Friday, me and you are going to have a really good experience. We're going to go everywhere.” I was planning on going on the highway. [audience laughter] I was going to go to Central Park. I was going to do everything. The reason I thought about that was, because in my neighborhood, Washington Heights, it's really common for a lot of kids to bike around in a group. They would do wheelies and all kinds of tricks. I wanted to be one of those kids. I thought that was so cool. But of course, I was seven, and I definitely didn't know how to do any wheelies, [chuckles] but that's why I wanted to ride the bike so much. 

 

Friday finally came, and I had to go to school and I came home like a man on a mission. I threw my bags down and I went straight to the backyard. Top lock, middle lock, other middle lock, swing the door open. When I swing the door open, it wasn't there. I was really confused. I was like, “What's going on? What kind of joke is this?” I look around for a little bit, and then I go to my dad and I'm like, “So, where's the bike?” And he's like, “It should be out there. It's been there all week.” When he said that, I was like, “It's not there right now. We should go look for it.” 

 

My mom and dad are really well known in the neighborhood, so they asked around and they talked to people and they were saying if anybody knew or had seen the bike. We even hop in our car and we're driving around for two hours. So, two weeks pass, and it was really starting to settle that my bike was going to be gone forever. It hurt me, but it really brought me back to a time when my dad had first taught me how to ride a bike. I was around four or five years old, and he took me to the park on a summer evening, and he was pushing me along for a little bit and then he finally decides to let go. Of course, I didn't notice and I'm pedaling for a little bit. 

 

And then, he says from a distance, he's like, “You're doing it. This is you. You're doing it by yourself.” I look down, I'm like, “Oh, this is so much better than walking.” [audience laughter] I’m like, “I'm going so fast.” And then, I proceed to face plant and everything, like cuts on my knees and stuff. My dad's really big on metaphors, so he's like, “You know what just happened? You just fell. And life is going to do that to you a lot. So, no matter how many times life knocks you down, you got to just get right back up.” And that's what I did. 

 

A couple days later, I called up a couple of my friends, grabbed one of my hand me down bikes and we went bike riding together. We went throughout the city. I didn't pop any wheelies, because I still don't have that kind of skill. Fast forward to about two years ago, I actually ended up getting my own bike, which my dad bought me. It's not yellow. It's black, it's electric and it does the job. I still fall off that bike, but I get right back up. Thank you.