“A Doctor, Teacher, or a Magician” — Dad Interviews Daughter on Every First Day of School

A dad interviewed his daughter on every single first day of school she's ever had since Kindergarten. Now that she's a senior, he's compiled all of the clips together into one post that has folks on social media getting emotional.

Ray Petelin (@raypetelinwx) uploaded the clip on X, where it's amassed over 14.2 million views.

At the beginning of the video, Ray can be heard asking his daughter off-camera if she can say her name and spell it.

"Elizabeth Petelin, El —" Ray's video then quickly cuts to his daughter, in Kindergarten, sitting on a couch and speaking into a camera.

Seeing the video jump straight from Elizabeth as a senior in high school, to a little girl waiting for her first day of school in Kindergarten will probably tug at the heartstrings of any parent.

Briefly, Elizabeth spells her name as a Kindergartner before the video cuts back to her sitting in her chair in the present day again. Next, dad asks her what she wants to be when she grows up. Elizabeth looks up before the video cuts back to her as a child.

As a Kindergartner, she says she wants to go into the medical field. Then in first grade, she says she wants to be "a teacher." Once second grade hits, she allows herself a bit more flexibility.

Once third grade hits, however, she changes her line of thinking again — "a million things," she says, seated on the couch, looking towards the camera. In fourth grade, she had a new career goal in mind: "a waitress," she says into the camera.

"I want to make a smoothie place," she says, intoning that she wants to own and operate her own business when she's older.

Ray's video then cuts to her in the sixth grade, where she makes another career pivot, this time, within the same industry however.

After entering middle school, however, it seems that she's reverted back to a previous career trajectory she had when she was younger. "Maybe a teacher?" a seventh grade Elizabeth says to her father off camera.

Going even further back to her kindergarten answer, Elizabeth gets more specific with the type of doctor she wants to become during her eighth grade interview, relaying that she dreams of specializing in operating on people's hearts.

"Open heart surgeon," she says to her father, looking off camera, relaying her answer to him.

10th grade reveals that she still wants to work in the medical field, but without cutting into people to remedy their ailments. "Physical therapist," she says to her dad.

"Physical therapist," she says to her father, who repeats the answer back to her. The video then snaps back to Elizabeth as a senior who responds that she'd like to a be a "physical therapist or nurse."

After chronicling what she's wanted to be as she's grown up over the years, Ray tells his daughter, that both him and Mom love her. In the final clip she asks her father, laughing, if he's "gonna cry?"

Her dad denies that he's getting emotional in the last part of the video before telling his daughter that he loves her. She responds in kind, and then the video cuts back to her as a kindergartner who says the same thing. Before asking, "is the school bus here now?"

In the final image of the video, Ray shows the same style photo taken well over a decade apart. Elizabeth lays down on the ground with the word "Kindergarten" written in chalk beneath her.

She hits the same pose as a high school senior, with the word "senior" written in chalk as well on the ground.

One person said that they wanted to do the same thing with their daughter who was beginning daycare soon. Ray urged them to do so, writing that the earlier the start the better.