Thank you for the lesson, kid

One's heart goes out to Cola Boy. His is a story that will inspire generations to come. He has lost his right arm but not his dream to become a scientist. And if his determination is anything to go by, he will.

Cola Boy, whose real name is Xue Xiao, survived for more than 80 hours under the rubble. He was sitting in the chemistry class when the May 12 earthquake razed his school building in the town of Hanwang, Mianzhu city. His survival story is all over the media: how rescue workers, Zhang Jianqiang and He Hongwei, fed him glucose water for two days, what they talked about to keep his spirits high, what is the deal they struck.

The devastating quake in Sichuan province has thrown up many such stories - of grit and valor, dedication and sacrifice. We know how a woman kept her 80-year-old husband alive by not leaving his side for 11 days. We know about the "most handsome boy" holding a drip bottle for hours to keep a classmate alive under the debris of his collapsed school building. We know about the silver linings in the dark story that the quake was.