Humans are never really fully satisfied during the course of their lives. They point and laugh if they spot a cat chasing its tail in the streets, without realising that it is just what they end up doing all their lives. When they're old, they try and act like adults, and the moment they step into adulthood, they want to find the child inside them and bring it out. There is no point in their lives when they can just be as old as they are.

However, this state of dissatisfaction can at times do remarkable wonders for the exceptional few, who then go on to becoming legends for people to take inspiration from for generations to come. The story of Michael Kearney is a remarkable one. The child prodigy, known as the world's youngest college graduate at the age of 10, and for setting several world records including that of teaching college at the age of 17, Kearney is the best example there is of an ordinary kid achieving what most adults aren't able to, at times all their lives.

Now all grown-up, Kearney was born in 1984 to a Japanese mother and a Caucasian father. Amazingly, he was schooled at home by his parents, especially his mother, and it was from there that he accelerated in his academic career.

According to his extremely proud parents, as a child, Kearney spoke his very first words at four months. At the age of six months, he told his paediatrician, “I have a left ear infection”. Startlingly, he learnt to read at the age of 10 months.Kearney was the world's youngest postgraduate and the holder of several Guinness world records. To date, he is listed in the Guinness Book as the world's youngest university graduate at the age of 10, receiving a bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of South Alabama. This was after enrolling at Santa Rosa Junior College at the age of six years and seven months, from which Kearney graduated at the age of eight with an associate of science in geology. He graduated from Middle Tennessee State University with a master's degree in chemistry at the age of 14, and taught at college at 17.

Though the world saw and continues to see many child prodigies after Kearney, what he achieved as a 10-year-old was so remarkable that people still remember him. He kick-started this crazy race, where even younger children went up to obtaining some of the most prestigious degrees and doctorates in the world. Who's young now?