A father’s reaction to learning his daughter had passed her college exams has brought tears from viewers, as she told Newsweek her father “never doubted” her.
Vaughan-Ellis Campion, 21, lives in Dublin, Ireland, and is in her final year of her studies, which she admits has “been an extremely challenging road for me.”
Describing herself as “not very academically gifted,” Campion said she has “always found things such as school just a bit more difficult than the people around me,” and thought college would not be for her.
But, when Campion got an offer for a course in Dublin, “my parents encouraged me to give it a try.”
Since then, Campion has made “amazing new friends” and has thrown herself into college work, making it to her final semester after passing her exams at Christmas—and the moment she told her father, Paul, the good news, has gone viral.
In a video to her TikTok account @vaughan.com on February 13, which has over 303,000 views, Campion wrote: “When you’re not academically gifted so every passed exam is like you just won an Olympic medal to your dad.”
Campion set up the camera as if checking her outfit, and asked her dad: “Does my outfit look like somebody who passed both of their exams?”
For just a second, Paul looks confused—before he lets out a shout of laughter and wraps his daughter into a giant bear hug, emotionally telling her: “Well done, you!”
Both father and daughter then turn to the camera and celebrate, with Paul saying: “We’re getting there.” Campion wrote in a caption: “Getting this degree is a team effort but we are so close ladies!”
Campion told Newsweek both her mother and father “have done everything in their power to support me and get me to where I am today.” She said she had not expected to pass her Christmas exams as she was having a really tough time in the lead-up to the test.
“But to my absolute disbelief, I didn’t just pass, I actually did better than I have in most exams I’ve done in previous years,” Campion said.
“I think, in the video, my dad’s level of relief is quite clear, but what I think some people wouldn’t have realized is that he’s not relieved because I passed the exams; he’s relieved because he knows, with every exam I pass, I’m one step closer to the finish line and one step further away from giving up on my goal.”
In the United States, around 41 percent of people aged between 25 and 34 had attained a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2021, compared to 33 percent of the population aged 65 or over, according to Statista. Sixteen percent of people aged between 25 and 34 had attended some college but had not attained a degree.
Campion’s joyous video had a huge reaction, with commenters flocking to the clip to praise her and her father. One wrote: “This is amazing. Your Dad clearly loves you very much. You’re a rich gal.”
“Stop I actually teared up,” another user posted, as a third said they were “crying, so proud of you.” Another viewer said: “super proud of you and I don’t even know you.”
And one comment read: “Congrats! Being so much loved is going to help you much more in life than academic success alone. You are very lucky, believe me. Wish you the best!”
Campion agreed: “My dad has never doubted that I could do whatever it is I want to do or be whoever I want to be, despite the many, many times I doubted myself.
“I know love exists because my dad exists, and he has never failed to make me feel loved. And I believe, even if I had told him in that video [that] I didn’t pass those exams, he’d have hugged me just as tight.”
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