Tyler Sullivan, the fifth grader who was excused from class last week with a handwritten note from President Barack Obama himself, says he was simply "shocked" when the president began scrawling on a piece of paper.
"I felt really shocked and I just had a huge grin on my face," Sullivan said on CNN Monday morning. "I was like, 'Really? He's writing me an excuse note? That's really crazy.'"
Sullivan skipped school on Friday to catch the president's speech at a Honeywell plant in Golden Valley, Minn., where his father Ryan gave introductory remarks. The impromptu note from the president, written on official White House stationary with the presidential seal, reads: "Mr. Ackerman -- Please excuse Tyler ... he was with me! Barack Obama."
Asked what he thought of Obama's speech last week, Sullivan gave the president high marks.
"It was good," he said on CNN. "I liked the line, 'If you can save a life on the battlefield, you can save a life in the ambulance.'"
Sullivan says he wants to grow up to be an NFL player.
