The Story Behind This Epic Graduation Photo Re-Creation Will Make You Smile

There are a lot of heartwarming stories right now about kids graduating from high school, but this one might be one of my favorites. A graduating teenager recreated a photo of her family that was taken at her own mom’s graduation, and it’s just so sweet and pure and thankful I almost got misty-eyed.

Eighteen-year-old Madeleine Tarin was just two years old when her mother graduated from high school. “My mom and dad got together when my mom was in her freshman year of high school,” Madeleine told BuzzFeed. “My mom was pregnant at 15 but had me when she was 16.” At her mom’s graduation, Madeleine and her parents took this adorable photo:

As Madeleine said to BuzzFeed, “It’s one of my favorite photos ever since I was little. I thought it was unique and it represented my life in a nutshell.” Madeleine’s parents stayed in high school after she was born, and with the help of her grandparents her dad worked to support them. Her parents got married when they were in their twenties, and eventually had two more daughters.

At her own graduation from Chino Hills High School, Madeleine and her parents decided to recreate their iconic photo.

Madeleine tweeted both photos with the caption, “Yeah that’s right, we made it TOGETHER” and that gets me choked up because it’s clear she really appreciates everything her parents went through to help her succeed. In the fall, she will matriculate at Rider University in New Jersey on a soccer scholarship, which Madeleine says wouldn’t be possible if her parents hadn’t enrolled her in club soccer, which was a “big expense for the family.”

The teen said that the picture symbolized her family’s accomplishments and that her parents beat the statistics. “At first, I just wanted to show my friends and followers I had a story that a lot of people didn’t really know about me and my main motive to why I’ve strived so hard to be successful in high school and will continue to strive in college,” she said.

The recreation was planned for a year, but it’s clearly been in the making for 18 years. “This whole year, I’ve been waiting to take this photo,” Madeleine said to BuzzFeed. “And when I posted it and saw how much people had been inspired by, it gave me and my parents even more of a sense of accomplishment.”

Congratulations, fam!

(Image: Twitter / @123alwayssmilen)