More than 8 million of you watched these two brothers
get accepted into their dream colleges.
Take a look at this.
Wait, wait, wait.
Back up.
Yeah, you up there.
Or not.
Their story is even more incredible.
From Opelousas, Louisiana, please
welcome Alex and Aryton Little.
OK, who's Alex?
Who's Aryton?
Alex.
I'm Aryton.
All right.
OK.
So look, yeah.
Hi, everybody.
So, OK, this is incredible.
You were surrounded by friends and schoolmates
not knowing which way it was going to go.
We do that for all our seniors.
It's just like a ritual we do at our school.
Right.
So it's always like a nerve-wrecking thing
for everyone sitting in that chair
because, like, that's the decision right there.
Nobody knows.
Right.
And how old are you?
I'm 18.
You're 18 and you're 16.
Yes.
And you got into Harvard.
And you got into Stanford.
I mean, not just got in, but full scholarships.
And so, you obviously do very well at school.
And this obviously has been a dream for both of you?
Oh, yes ma'am.
It's been, like, the goal that you worked
towards since you were a kid.
Those are schools that you think of.
Whenever you think of education, like Stanford, Harvard--
those are the schools you think of.
And it's really surreal just to be
able to say that I got accepted and that they're
doing all this stuff for me.
It's a little hard because for 16 years my life,
it's been Harvard.
And now I got into Harvard.
Now I'm thinking, oh--
oh, I got to pick something else to do.
It worked out.
Well, that's the good thing.
You have to pick another goal.
That's the thing in life-- you have
to keep trying to find things to search for that
makes you passionate and happy.
So this went viral.
And are you surprised by how many people have seen this?
I honestly say I was.
Because I just kind of put it on Twitter
because I was just excited, like, I did it.
I got in to college.
But then people really started taking towards the video.
And I was just like, wow.
I got excited to see all these people.
They were like retreat-- like, I'm in that room with you.
celebrating.
That type of energy is magical.
Yeah.
I mean, what makes it more amazing is
your mom is in the audience.
And hi, Mom.
You're incredible.
You are--
She is incredible.
Yeah.
You are incredible.
I told you that I saw you driving in on the lot this
morning and I-- your story is--
I mean, you were raised by a single mom.
You were on the verge of being homeless
for most of your lives.
You spent years in a home with no heat, no food a lot of times
and you would leave the oven burners on
to keep you warm at night.
Your younger brother passed away a couple of years ago.
And through all of this, you maintained the highest GPAs
in your class.
That is amazing.
I mean, that is a testament to who
you are to raise these two young boys like this.
Because a lot of people and a lot of young boys
would use that as an excuse to say, I don't have time
and, you know, go in a different direction.
Yeah, it's kind of--
it's just whenever I think about it,
I thought about education was my ticket out.
I knew that I was smart and I was able to get good grades.
I said, I'm going to work as hard
as I can to do this because I notice that our mom has
been doing a lot for us.
And so, I know one thing she likes--
she says all the time is that, no matter
what I was going through, no matter what bills were going
unpaid, or how hard her situation was,
I knew that I was coming home to kids who
weren't out getting into who knows what
and they had good grades.
She's like, that's something that she
was proud to be able to say that no matter what was going on.
Yeah.
So not only are you proud, but this is such a relief for you
to know that they are completely taken care of in college.
You don't have to worry about that.
I truly am because, you know, people
say paycheck to paycheck-- sometimes
it wasn't even paycheck to paycheck.
And I didn't want them to see and be
aware of just how bad it was.
But like he said, the one thing I didn't have to worry about
was them and their grades.
You know, what was getting cut off,
what was about to get repossessed or whatever--
I had that on my shoulders.
But the one thing I didn't have to worry about
was their schooling.
They took care of that.
It was one less thing--
Yeah.
--you know, that I had to worry about.
So that--
Well, I-- I love all of you and I have something
for your mom a little later.
But I have something for y'all for your dorm room.
Your dorm is taken care of.
Oh!
Oh, my God.
Amazing.
[INAUDIBLE] No way.
Oh my gosh.
And you don't even play guitar.
[INAUDIBLE]
I think you'll have plenty of time to play guitar.
All right, we're back with Alex and Aryton
and their mom, Maureen.
And so we didn't talk about what do y'all want to do after you
graduate?
The dream is to get a job on Wall Street.
And with that money and influence,
I want to make a nonprofit so it can help students that were
in our situation that are--
and just help them.
Because I know that I would definitely
wanted someone to help my mom.
That's a great idea.
That's fantastic.
Well, for me, part of what drew me to Stanford
was its proximity to the Silicon Valley and all the tech
opportunities out there.
And so I want to work in a place like Google or Tesla
and really get my hands in the STEM field.
And after that, I want to start a nonprofit
to help kids like my age-- well not my age, who are younger
than me get into areas in the STEM field
because I think about where I made without the resources.
Just imagine if I gave my 12-year-old self a laptop
and told him, here-- here's how you code things.
Here's a robotics kit.
Why don't you learn and tinker with that and see
would he be able to bring himself to use his energy there
as opposed to somewhere else.
Yeah, you all are amazing.
I just keep saying it.
You're just amazing.
Thank you.
All right.
And again, you just have to be so proud of them.
I mean, I just can't imagine if they would
have gotten different news.
I mean, this is--
I mean, it seemed like it was obvious they were going to get
in because of their grades.
But, I mean, you have to be just so thrilled.
I am so incredibly proud of them.
I cannot just-- it's amazing.
You know, to know that they did it even with the stuff
that we've had to deal with-- you know,
you mentioned about the oven, heat, and everything else.
It was pretty bad.
Yeah.
It really was.
Yeah.
But, you know, they did it.
Yeah.
They did it.
And then they lost-- you know, you lost a son.
They lost their brother a couple of years ago suddenly.
You know, I mean, that's a lot to go through.
Well, we want to do something for you because we love you.
And Shutterfly loves inspiring stories like this.
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Ah!
[BLEEP] God [BLEEP]