Teenager Reveals News of His Father's Death During Graduation Speech. Leaves Everyone in Tears
Graduation is a special occasion when a student is full of hope and dreams for the future, while parents are filled with pride. But when 18-year-old Early College High School's valedictorian, Alem Hadzic took to the stage to deliver his graduation speech, his father was not in the audience. Hadzic composed himself and veered off course during his speech, leaving the audience shocked by revealing that he had attended his father's funeral just before making it to the ceremony, per The Fort Worth Star Telegram.
The audience was stunned to hear what the youngster had been through ahead of the big day since only a handful of people knew about his father Miralem Hadzic's demise. “My father died yesterday, May 15, 2024, and I attended his funeral today, right before graduation,” Hadzic said in his speech. “That’s why my shoes are muddy and my arms are shaking because I had to carry him into his grave and bury him. I can’t stand up here and pretend I want to be doing this speech right now but I can’t throw something away that he worked so hard for me to achieve." He addressed how his father wanted him to attend college and how Hadzic “spent every hour of every day working as hard as he can to achieve all of his goals because that’s what his father wanted.”
“I’m going to do it for him," he added emotionally in the end, telling the audience to care for their loved ones as well. The graduate received a standing ovation as he went ahead to collect his diploma and take pictures with his teachers. According to the reports by WFAA, Miralem came to the United States from Bosnia and delivered Domino's pizzas to help build a better life for his children in the U.S. at one point. After he was diagnosed with cancer, a relative of one of his co-workers created a GoFundMe page where they raised $12,670 out of their $15,000 goal meant for Miralem's treatment.
“I started reading the script and when I got to the part about my dad, I couldn’t just read off a script anymore. I had to talk about my experience, and I had to talk from the heart," Hadzic opened up about his speech in an interview with FOX 4's Good Day, mentioning how he was able to deal with his mix of emotions by going off-script during the speech. "I got up there. I said my speech. I looked in the audience and I didn't expect to see so many people crying. I didn't know any of them but they came up to me. They made me feel better. They wanted to take pictures with me. They told me how strong I was and it made me feel so much better. It made me feel so good on such a dark day. It was really what I needed." The teenager is now headed to the University of Texas in Austin to study chemical engineering soon.