Family Life

Daughter tries to convince mum to do a PhD- with a little help from Twitter

Mum-of-three, Trina Dye, gave up her career as a concert pianist to raise her kids as a single mother in LA. 

Now her daughter, Morgan York, wants to encourage her to put herself first for a change. 

"She gave up her career as a concert pianist to raise us,"  Morgan told BuzzFeed News.

Morgan, a children's writer, also had a brief career as a child actor in such noughties classics as Cheaper by the Dozen, Hannah Montana and The Pacifier. Now she wants her mum to pursue her dreams. 

Her mother, Trina, who currently works in entertainment law, had previously returned to college after 23 years to finish her masters in piano performance.

She had initially put her school on hold as she was "worried about the time my continued education would take away from my kids," she said. 

Recently, she confided in her daughter about her fears of returning to college. While Morgan assured her that many people go back later in life to pursue education, Trina still wasn't sure. 

"It didn't seem fair to me that she'd always supported my goals, as well as the goals of my siblings, but didn't know how to feel confident about her own," Morgan said.

"My mum's tireless encouragement of me pursuing my passions is a big part of the reason I believe my dreams are achievable."

So, wih her mum's permission, she took to Twitter with an experiment, to let the Internet encourage her mother. 

So far the tweet has racked up nearly 117,000 retweets. Safe to say that's a big pro-PhD vote. 

To restore our faith in humanity even more, many commenters shared their own experiences of returning to education. 

"It was completely overwhelming and amazing," Trina said about all the love coming from the tweet. "I was — and am — astounded by the amount of love and support from people of all ages. It is truly inspiring."

And while the pair are under no illusions about how much work goes into a PhD, Morgan is certain that her mum will smash it. 

"If anyone can handle it, it's my mum. She's my hero."

Inspired by the kindness and wise words of strangers, Trina has since applied to a local graduate school. 

They could not have been more supportive," she said of her kids.

"This process has reconfirmed my belief that people will always surprise us and that we are always inspired by those who make choices against the odds. It has also rekindled my belief in myself. "

To the helpful Internet strangers Trina said, "thank you" and "I will work my butt off to not let you down."

"To my daughter, I would like to say…I could not be prouder of you than I already am," she added.

Awh bless! We're so proud of her already! 

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