A Texas high school valedictorian, who gave a tearful speech set against the backdrop of his father’s burial earlier that morning, said he looked out at the crowd and saw how his words had touched everyone, summoning the strength to carry on.
“I didn’t even know if I had the strength to do it. I was talking about my father and always [stopped]”I wanted to stop, but I looked at the audience and I saw people who were listening to me, understanding what I was saying, empathizing with me, being moved by the words coming out of my mouth. And that’s what kept me going. That’s what kept me going until the end,” graduate Aleem Hadzic, the man behind the moving moment, told Fox News Channel on Sunday.
The 18-year-old graduate lost her father, Miralem, to cancer on May 15, just one day before her graduation ceremony at Early College High School, just north of Dallas.
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Alem Hadzic was addressing his colleagues just hours after his father’s burial. (Screenshot from Early College High School/Fox & Friends Weekend)
As he stood before his compatriots and their families, he was wearing the same muddy shoes he had used to carry his father to the grave for his burial earlier that morning.
“I wrote the speech the morning before. [the graduation ceremony]”The morning he passed away, before I found out the funeral was the next day,” he told “Fox & Friends Weekend” co-host Will Cain.
“So I knew I was going to speak about him,” he said. “I just didn’t know I’d be burying him right before I gave the speech.”
Behind the podium, he told his peers that his arms were shaking from carrying the casket and that his father’s desire for him to achieve all his goals had inspired his determination to go to college and make it happen.
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Alem Hadzic spoke to Will Cain about the details behind his inspiring commencement speech. (Fox & Friends Weekend/Screenshot)
“That’s why I’m going to go to college and I’m going to work as hard as I can every hour of every day to achieve all of my goals because that’s what my dad would want and I want to do it for him,” he told the crowd.
The original script mentioned the death of his father, but many of his lines were delivered spontaneously and without preparation.
“The funeral part, me burying him, and the ending were all added in later. They weren’t in the script. They just came out of my heart in the moment,” he explained.
His speech received a standing ovation and praise from his friends, and it subsequently went viral, garnering media attention for its heartwarming, inspiring message about family, strength and perseverance.
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“What I’ve learned is that whatever I achieve, it’s for my family, because they’ve always been there for me and they always will be there for me,” he said at the end of Sunday’s show.
“So I’m going to continue to work hard. Like I said in my speech, I’m going to work hard for my mom, my sister and my dad.”
Hadzic plans to enroll at the University of Texas in the fall and study chemical engineering. According to PEOPLE.
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