The child genius who was trapped in his father’s expectations, despite winning a Guinness World Record

11-year-old Adragon De Mello once made history by earning a college degree and entering Guinness World Record. His father had high expectations, and made a full-time career to ensure his son wasn’t an ordinary child. Unlike other college students, the son would spend 21 hours a week studying heavier subjects like physics, and astronomy, making him famous, before he even got to be a child.

The 11-year-old boy was trained by his father to ensure that one day he wins a nobel price. At the age of 11, he achieved a title for youngest college graduate in Guinness Book of World Records. But his level of genius wasn’t hereditary. He was shaped….infact, trained by his father, Agustin De Mello, who made it his full-time career to turn his youngest son, Adragon, into a genius. As for the money, the father would receive it from an auto accident that allowed him to live comfortably. 

Adragon would take on courses that many college students would deliberately avoid, including, Physics, Astronomy, and Meteorology, all for 21 hours a week straight. But it was his father’s expectations that compelled him to have a level of focus that other kids, at his age, wouldn’t even think of. He could read little obscure facts and remember it straight away. 

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Speaking of father’s expectations, they were of no limits. He wanted his son to follow the footsteps of da Vinci or Einstein. So he would occupy his son with additional homework, besides what he would receive at school. It involved watching educational programs on television, or listening to great musicians. Visiting the neighbour’s kids to play was forbidden. Rather, he was pushed to study harder. 

Adragon had mixed feelings towards his father. On one hand, he credits his father for pushing his limits, as it encouraged him to study and earn a higher grade. On the other hand, it would remind him of two hamsters tugging a little hamster in two different directions, as if it’s getting stretched and at the verge of being torn apart. But his father’s conclusion was, only the end could justify the fruit of his actions, hinting that his son would be a benefit to the civilization in the future. 

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But the question is, did he turn into one? Well, as per his father…not really. At the age of 23, Adragon didn’t receive a Nobel price. But ironically, Adragon never cared about it in the first place, as it was all his father pushing him into that direction. 

Adragon is now training to be an estimator for a commercial painting company. Of course, it requires the kind of skills that he already possesses: Accurate mathematical skills, which he had gained a degree in, at the age of 11. 

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As for Adragon’s mother, Cathy Gunn, she was never interviewed back at the time when her son was making headlines for graduating at the age of 11. But she recently revealed that she was horrified by the father’s obsessive pressure on their son. But she had no say. She was helpless. All she could do was sit back and watch. She also wasn’t allowed to use or answer the phone; enter certain rooms in the house; or be in the house at specific hours during the day.

The father had also warned his son to never mention about his mother during the interview, because he didn’t want her talking to anybody at all. If things didn’t go according to his wishes, he would go any lengths to threaten to kill himself in front of Adragon or the mother. 

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Cathy’s fears grew to an extent where she feared for her and her son’s life. So one day she called the police, telling them that her husband has kept a gun in the house. When the police stormed into the house, Agustin pretended to have a heart attack. After having tested and released from the hospital, he was arrested for child endangerment. 
Adragon was put in foster care, and in 1989, he went to live with his mother. He also went back to junior college, where he took all other courses like history and science, besides math. His past would still linger around as people continued to perceive him as a human calculator, every now and then. They would walk up-to him with equations to solve. But he wouldn’t answer.

Today, nobody thinks of him as a human calculator. But he has a happy house, a large group of friends, and certainly loves his job.

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At present, Adragon’s father, 71, is dying of cancer and it taken care of at a hospice. He still manages to brag about his son’s achievements. 

But one night after a long chat, Adragon finally got what he wanted the most all his childhood: His father wrapping his arms around him, holding him close and telling him, “I’m proud of you.”

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