Recently I overheard someone saying that today's teenagers don't have the same work ethic that we had at that age.

"Bull" said I. "Today's average teenager definitely works harder in school than we did and probably out of school too."

There's no doubt that their high school math and science courses are far advanced from what I studied; at least an equal percentage of them have part time jobs and; it seems to me that they do more volunteer work in the community than we did. On top of all that, their hobbies are much more complex and demanding simply because of the technologies available to them.

Take seventeen year-old Coal Fuller for example.

When I talk to him, I get the feeling that he lives on the edge of the next millennium and I'm somewhere back in the middle ages.

We're living in an incredibly fast-paced society today. We're told that all the knowledge, or data, in the world is doubling every year or less. It's a world of lifelong learning -- software, hardware, products, markets and jobs are constantly changing.

Today's teenagers are much more comfortable in this environment than most of us adults.

"I can't stand anything if it's stock," Coal grimaced. "Whether it's my car or whatever, I've got to make it my own."

He's into "case moding" now - modifying computer cases ... putting in windows, getting them painted at auto body shops, adding neon lighting ... that sort of thing. He's also got plans for his car.

"I want to change everything, different body, different rims, and silver inside and out with blue interior lighting to give it a high tech feel." He also wants leather seats and he's got his eye on glowing chrome racing pedals.

I guess we all knew guys who were turned on to their cars as teenagers but this is definitely a high tech, twenty first century twist on the hobby.

Coal was "raised on a computer". It was the computer games that first attracted him but then, a substitute teacher whose name he has forgotten - "She was really nice" -- turned him on to a BBS Bulletin Board Service -- the precursor to the Internet.

With a little help from an older cousin, he began writing to pen pals around the world but soon, the Internet began to grow and guess what? There were games on the net and tons of people around the world playing them, people who wanted to play together and meet each other on line.

Coal began to build web sites for various "clans" or "guilds", people who share his interest in computers and computer games.

Next he "began dabbling with the mod community." These are people who take the basic core of on-line games and build their own games on that foundation.

Recently, he's also won a regional Skills Canada web design competition and will be going on to the provincials at the end of the month.

He spends 35 to 40 hours a week on his various hobbies and still finds time to sit on the board of the Oceanside Community Arts Council. I'd say he has a good work ethic.

So what's next for this young man?

"A year or two in the working world," he says and with all the contacts he's made through his various "clans" or "guilds", he doesn't expect to have trouble finding a well paying job. After that, he'll probably go to the Emily Carr Institute or the Centre for Digital Imaging and Sound in Vancouver.

Coal Fuller's passion for computers and design in general is exceptional but if you take a look around, his work ethic isn't that unusual. On the whole, today's students are pretty darned impressive.