A military father has traveled over 30 hours to surprise his daughter at her graduation ceremony.
US Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Douglas Hernandez traveled a whopping 30 hours from Dubai to see his daughter, Pamela Hernandez, graduate from the University of Nevada Las Vegas.
Officials at the university revealed that no one in the family knew of Douglas' surprise plan, apart from Douglas himself.
According to the school staff, the military father had missed his Pamela's previous graduation ceremonies and didn't want to at one more to the list.
"I had no idea what was going on. I thought he would be on a virtual screen. I did not know he would be in person," Pamela said. "It was amazing." Fox5 Vegas shared a video of the special moment from that day, which showed the father and daughter sharing a hug on stage as the graduating crowd cheered.
It was a special moment for the family, and the heartwarming story was loved by netizens across the internet.
"Beautiful picture. Congratulations to the young lady and thank you for serving [our] country Dad," one person wrote.
Someone else added: "Any graduation is important you don't get a do-over Congratulations young lady Good job Dad memories are precious [sic]."
A third user chimed in with: "That's what Good [Dads] do!! Congratulations to your Beautiful daughter!! What a special memory that you will both have forever!! I ABSOLUTELY Love this!!"
"What a wonderful surprise for this daughter. I know she was so surprised and happy. Nothing like having your dad there," another comment read.
For the Hernandez family, the graduation was a success - and there are many similar stories going around, especially as it's graduation season right now.
In fact, one of the highlights of the past few weeks was the story of a girl who recently graduated top of her class and made it into the prestigious Harvard University, despite having her start being born in a prison. Aurora Sky Castner, from Texas, graduated in the third spot in her class at Conroe High School recently, 18 years after she was born in the Galveston County Jail, per The Houston Chronicle.
"I was born in prison," the 18-year-old wrote in the opening line of her application essay to Harvard University, before being accepted into the prestigious Massachusetts university, according to the newspaper. Although she had a rough start to life, Castner defied the odds to achieve her dream of being accepted into Harvard, where she hopes to pursue a career in law.
