VICTORIA -- Passing notes can get you in trouble in class, but not always.
A B.C. cabinet minister’s tweet about a note that his 10-year-old son received at school has gone viral, and for all the right reasons.
On Wednesday night, Ravi Kahlon, cabinet minister and MLA for Delta North, returned home to find that his son had something to tell him.
"He brings over this note and he says, 'Dad, one of my friends at school gave me this,'" Kahlon told CTV News.
The note, he learned, came from a new student at his son’s school. Kahlon’s son and a friend noticed that he was sitting alone at lunch and joined him.
It was a simple, kind gesture that was appreciated by the lonely boy.
"Sitting with me outside felt better than anything," reads the note given to Kahlon’s son. "Thank you so much. I would like to ask you if I could start joining you guys outside."
The Delta North MLA said reading the note made him emotional, and proud.
"I opened the note and I was like – tears were starting to come through," said Kahlon.
The father thought that the note was something worth sharing, so he tweeted out the letter with a caption that read in part, "Proud dad moment today."
In a world that is starved for good news, the post went viral.
"I put my phone down and I said, 'How many tweets do you think this has? Or retweets?'" said Kahlon. "And he says, 'I don’t know, 10?'"
That night, the tweet had been liked more than 25,000 times. By late Thursday afternoon, that total had ballooned to 350,000.
On Wednesday night, Kahlon mentioned to his son that the tweet had been liked more than 20,000 times, to which his son responded with a shrug.
"That’s just kids," said Kahlon. "That is how they know they should act, so to them this is not a special thing, this is just how it is."
Since the note was posted, it’s been shared across the world, from Norway to the U.K., and from posters in "languages that I don’t even know," says Kahlon. It’s also been shared by B.C.’s Premier and other notable figures, like serial do-gooder and retired NBA player, Rex Chapman.
The father says he doesn’t plan on telling his son about his newfound internet fame, saying that he doesn’t want the experience to be about social media or attention.
While Kahlon says he’s proud of his son, he says he’s also proud of the boy that wrote the note.
"I was proud of this kid who wrote his feelings down and put it out there like that. As adults we just don’t do that, it’s so adorable," he said.
While the pressures of the pandemic are affecting everyone across the globe, Kahlon says he thinks children will be okay with managing the challenges to come.
"The kids are going to be alright," he said. "I think we can all learn from kids."