“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.
It is there, and it creeps up like a silent killer. Maybe it is the wet underwear that you found floating in the hallway bathroom or the cat food that has been flung out on the floor like tiny marbles waiting to trip up a passerby or the loud thumping and yelling and tantruming as if we live in some sort of primal age where roaring and beating your chest are the only ways to get someone's attention.
"Satan will use these doors that you are opening to darkness to deceive you, oppress you, depress you, and actually cause you emotional and physical harm."
"Even as these asinine thoughts ran rampant in my mind I knew they were ridiculous... This is crazy business! Yet there they were, lies straight from the pit of hell, trying their best to take root in my mind."
"In this immediate defeat we’ve fallen for the tricks of Satan. Y’all, his playbook is always the same, and I’m not sure why we fall so easily for his game every time."
"It’s a question only you can answer, and it’s a struggle most of us face. So if you find yourself more irritable and stressed on Sunday mornings than anything then maybe it’s time for a heart change. Sundays are made for rest. It’s time to find it."
"You know, like the kind of sucker punch you see in the movies, the one that comes the moment the good guy has finally had enough of the bully. I want to be the Adam Sandler to a real-life Bob Barker, because when Adam delivered a blow to Bob Barker’s face in Happy Gilmore, it was one of the best moments of my life."
