“I’ve always been a rule follower. When they said not to chew gum, I didn’t chew gum. When they said not to use your cellphone, I didn’t use my cellphone. But today, in the spirit of defying expectations, and for perhaps the last time at this podium, I say..."
Early College High School valedictorian Alem Hadzic has gone viral after he took the stage at his graduation ceremony to deliver his speech—just hours after his father's funeral.
"My life as I knew it is destroyed. The pain my family and I feel is unbearable and cannot be put into words. I shake and tremble at the thought of our future without them."
"My dad wouldn’t tell me anything over the phone or by text and insisted he would meet me at home... There’s no way this was happening to me and my family. There is no way this could be real. Well, in fact it was real."
"Keep repeating it until people understand: Vincent Lambert was not 'taken off life support.' He was starved and dehydrated for a week by the state until he died."
"This was the first holiday without Beth. It was the 'first' in my 'year of firsts,' and I didn’t realize how gut-wrenching every first holiday, anniversary, and birthday was going to be without her."
"That one last high led me to a room, brain in a fog, staring at caskets trying to decide which one my little girl should be buried in. That one last high led to writing an obituary, planning a funeral and a house full of flowers from grieving friends and family."
