OK so this is one of those stories where you have to reread the timeline twice because your brain refuses to accept it. Nathan Thomas walked into his first college class at Miami Dade College when he was 10 years old. TEN. When I was 10 my greatest academic achievement was memorizing the full dialogue of a Shrek movie and I thought that made me gifted.

And it gets better and I'm just going to say it fast before I start vibrating: at 18, he came back to that same college as a professor. Same campus, same hallways, except now HE'S the one at the front of the room. According to MSN's report, his appointment made him a record-breaker too, which feels like the least surprising part. The kid was doing homework meant for adults while still losing baby teeth. Records were always going to fall.

Like, can you imagine being one of his students? You shuffle into class, you're 19, you're tired, you open your laptop, and the professor assigning you a 10-page paper is younger than the laptop. There's a version of this that could be weird or intimidating but every account of this kid suggests it's just... delightful? He knows exactly what it's like to sit in that chair because he sat in that chair, tiny, eight years ago, probably with his feet not touching the floor.

The part I love most is that he didn't skip being a student. He just started earlier and never stopped climbing. First a student at 10, then a graduate, then a record-setting professor at 18, all at the same school. It's a full circle so complete it's basically a spiral. Miami Dade basically raised him. That campus is his backyard.

And I know what you're thinking, because I thought it too: is this one of those pressured-genius situations that ends sadly? Those stories exist and they're heartbreaking. But this one reads different. He chose teaching. Out of everything a brain like that could do, he chose to stand in a room and help other people learn things. A kid who liked college so much at 10 that he decided to never really leave, basically.

Same. Truly, same.

Anyway. Somewhere in Miami right now there's a classroom where the professor can't legally buy a celebratory beer and is absolutely the smartest person in the building. The world is absurd in the best possible way and I will never get tired of writing these stories down.