Have you ever fantasized about what you'd do if you got to meet a famous person? Would you shake hands or hug? What would you say? Would you gush, or play it cool? Or would you become so overwhelmed you just... duck and crawl away?
Laugh all you want, but that's how one youngster reacted to meeting Her Majesty the Queen, and it's struck a chord in the hearts of many!
It happened during Her Majesty's recent visit to the UK's oldest children's charity, Coram, to attend the opening of its newest facility named after her, the Queen Elizabeth II Centre. In attendance were TV presenters David and Carrie Grant and their nine-year-old son Nathan, whom they adopted from Coram.
Just as Carrie introduced Nathan to Queen Elizabeth, the kid seemed to sense that he was going to have to say something and instead just calmly sank to his knees and crawled out of the room, and I have never related to anyone more.
"That's his version of a bow," his mother quipped, referencing the usual protocol for greeting Her Majesty. As the Queen gamely moved on to meeting others in attendance, Nathan made sure he got the last word, calling out "Bye!" from the background before scurrying out of sight.
Boy so overwhelmed that he crawls away from meeting the Queenyoutu.be
I'm just sitting here tallying up all the awkward public interactions I've had that would have been vastly improved by me just crawling away and it's in the quadrillions. Nathan is my hero.
Anyway, Nathan's mother explained that, in fact, Nathan was just doing what his mother taught him. In a statement to HuffPost, she wrote:
"Nathan had been waiting for 2 hrs on Wednesday in his itchy suit as he [was] called. He was nervous and didn't know what to do so did what we always tell him, walk away!... "Not quite what we expected in this context but he was actually doing something we have taught him," they added, "We are very proud of him for waiting for so long and very proud that he tried his very best to stay put. He actually left with very little fuss! This is definitely a film we will be bringing out at all the appropriate birthday/wedding moments!"
She also gamely tweeted what every parent has likely thought at one time or another!
Others on social media found the moment eminently relatable:
I hereby propose Nathan Grant be named the official mascot of 2018, because nothing has ever been more relatable!
H/T HuffingtonPost, Time
@teamtalaricohq/Bluesky
@MoeJLong/X
@kellyosbourne/Instagram
@variety/Instagram