It's graduation season, when teenagers and parents stop fighting for a few minutes to share an awkward, tearful hug. After years of desperately wishing they were older, teens will transition to adulthood, and spend a lifetime desperately wishing they were younger. And after years of juvenile antics driving them crazy, parents will transition to a childless life, and realize that the gnawing emptiness drives them even more crazy. Isn't life grand?
To celebrate her graduation from Huntsville High School in Texas, Tori Roach recreated her dad's old graduation picture. Eighteen years earlier, Dennis Roach graduated from the same high school wearing the same green cap and gown. In the throwback photo, a young Dennis Roach holds his newborn daughter Tori and plants a kiss on her cheek. The pair recreated the posture at Tori's graduation in May 2018, showing the beautiful cycle of life.
Tori shared the sweet picture on Twitter, writing, "19 years later," followed by a graduation emoji and green heart emoji. The tweet quickly went viral, several thirsty replies from strangers regarding her father."For everyone asking, yes this is my dad, he’s 37, and no he isn’t single," she wrote in a follow-up tweet. "I have another sibling on the way."
"I didn’t expect it to blow up like that!" Tori exclaimed, in an interview with People. "Once it started happening, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh!’ I called my family and I was like, ‘Everyone’s sharing the pictures!’ … My dad was really proud. We’re from a small town, so nothing like this really ever happens. And he was like, ‘That’s so cool!’ It brought me and my dad closer in a way because we could share that moment, and I feel that not many other people get to experience that."
Tori is currently a student at Sam Houston State University and plans to recreate the photo again when she graduates from college in 2022. "It’s in the same town that I was born and raised in," she told the outlet. “When I graduate from Sam, it’ll be in the same stadium that I graduated in from high school and the same stadium that he graduated in from high school."
Imagine the photo possibilities if one day Tori has a child and that child also graduates from Huntsville High School. Dennis could hold Tori, and Tori could hold her child, and they could win the internet, if the internet is still a thing, and the zombie apocalypse hasn't occurred yet.
