Dad shares touching note 8-year-old wrote after discovering his thesis – and he got an A+

Understanding a thesis might be a monumental task for most adults, let alone children—but curiosity knows no bounds, especially when it’s a parent’s work. Adam Phillippy experienced this firsthand when his 8-year-old daughter discovered his bound thesis in the basement and decided to "read" it. What happened next was both hilarious and heartwarming. Phillippy shared the moment on Twitter, writing, "My 8-year-old came across my bound thesis in the basement, 'read' it, and spontaneously wrote me this note. I will now be listing her as a suggested reviewer for all my manuscript submissions."

The note, which Phillippy also shared in his tweet, was nothing short of delightful. It read: "Dear Adam (Daddy), I was very amazed by your work. It surprised me that it took you four whole years to write that thesis. I'm sure it took a lot of hard work. I found lots of things about the Genome Sequence. I also like learning about what you studied and were interested in. A lot of things made me say 'awesome.' Your younger daughter, Hannah." She even gave the thesis an enthusiastic A+ rating.

Hannah’s review not only melted hearts online but also provided a refreshing perspective on the labor of academic research—through the eyes of an 8-year-old marveling at her dad’s accomplishments.

Reddit user u/PhDVa reshared the tweet on Reddit writing: "I give this post an A+" Other Reddit users were quick to comment on this adorable post. u/danceswithsockson wrote, "If Hannah is available, I'd love for her to check mine out when I'm done. If she doesn't find herself going 'awesome' a lot, I will consider my work a failure."

u/Icy-Revolution1706 wrote, "Just be prepared for the gentle shade that it took you '4 whole years to write it.' Clearly Hannah thought it could've been done in 3." u/MoreCarrotsPlz commented, "I did this when I was a kid and that was in the '80s and '90s, I think a lot of kids did. Emojis evolved from the :) symbols and that only emerged because there was no other way to type the smiley faces we used to draw in our notes."

u/GoudaGirl2 wrote, "On the flip side it's cool the newer generations will be expressing emotions in writing more than previous generations. Maybe it's not the worst. It adds nuance in a novel way." u/thankyeestrbunny noted, "It's the Hannah Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence."

Another user wrote, "Dude is gonna be mortified in 10 years that his thesis went semi-viral. I have never met anyone that thought their master's or Ph.D. thesis was good lol. Edit: (just wanted to make clear this is a lighthearted joke about a common trend among academics so nobody thinks I'm trying to hate on the guy’s thesis!)"

u/gademmet commented, "Ultimately, adorable. Just the very idea that she wasn't immediately bored to tuning out by what was likely a ton of printed pages and whatnot, seeing instead the work her dad put into it, and taking it so seriously she wrote him about it. Wonderful to see." u/HeffalumpAndWoozle wrote, "My favorite line, 'It surprised me that it took you four whole years to write that thesis.' Come on Dad, you should not have spent so much time playing D&D with your mates :)."

Her dad will forever remember this A+ and for all the good reasons!

This article originally appeared 1 year ago.