BusyCowboy

It’s both a teenager’s dream and a parent’s worst nightmare.

Blake Peebles, a 16-year-old from Raleigh, NC., dropped out of high school last September in order to devote more time to playing Guitar Hero, according to an article in the Raleigh News & Observer. Peebles, who’s receiving at-home tuition in lieu of his schooling, puts himself among the top 15 or 20 Guitar Hero players in the country, and has racked up about $1000 in prizes so far.

Only a handful are able to make a living from professional gaming, but the number is growing. Peebles, who plays under the alias “Dreminem,” hopes to become one of them. Although his parents didn’t want him to ditch school, in the words of the article he “bugged them until they let him quit.”

“We couldn’t take the complaining anymore,” Peebles’ mother Hunter told the News & Observer. “He always told me he thought school was a waste of time.” Blake hopes to win a place at the 2008 World Cyber Games Grand Final, which takes place in Germany in November, where — if successful — he’d take on gamers from over 70 countries.

Would he have better career prospects if he’d dropped out of school to be an actual guitarist? Time will tell.