Like many other parents, Kevin Scruggs filmed his daughter’s first day at school.
However, it wasn’t just for a cute home video, the doting dad had a long-term goal to compile all of daughter MacKenzie's “first days” into a beautiful video to give her when she graduated from high school.
He diligently interviewed MacKenzie about her first day from first grade right up to high school. He had begun filming her first days when she started kindergarten but unfortunately, the first few years couldn’t be transferred to video.
Kevin told The Metro he wanted to make the video for “sentimental” reasons.
He said: ‘I’m somewhat sentimental and a planner so I knew that once the kids began school, I wanted to capture the first day with the hopes that one day when it was all done, we could look back together over their ‘first day’ of school.”
Like all dads, he finds the idea of his eldest child growing up and leaving home difficult so he decided to create the video to preserve precious memories.
“I thought it would be a great way to memorialise their childhood and a way for my wife and I to enjoy it long after they have left home and gone on to greater things in life, so there is some selfish motivation there.”
The result of his interviews was an incredible video which charted MacKenzie’s progress through school and her growth from a bubbly little girl to a confident young woman.
During her earlier years of school MacKenzie is happy and animated when interviewed about her school day. As she reaches adolescence she becomes slightly less chatty and less interested in the interview, allowing dad Kevin to direct the narrative.
However, by ninth grade, she is back to her enthusiastic self and fills Kevin in on beginning high school and taking the bus to school for the first time.
By tenth grade, she admits she spent part of her day “looking for cute boys”.
“Sleeping in” is her main concern by eleventh grade and by twelfth grade MacKenzie is all grown up and excited for prom and graduation.
Kevin uploaded his video to YouTube on June 10 when MacKenzie finished high school where it’s had over one million views in just six days.
MacKenzie is now off to college but the good news is Kevin is working on a similar video for her younger sister.
We can’t wait to see the next one!
