SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) The surprise commencement speaker at the Florida high school where a gunman killed 17 people in February was Jimmy Fallon, who said he wanted to thank the students personally for their courage and bravery.
Most commencement speakers get up and talk in future tense: You will succeed. You will make us proud, you will change the world, the Tonight Show host said. But Im not going to say that, because youre not the future. Youre the present. … You are succeeding, you are making us proud.
Fallon joked about his own less-than-stellar high school performance it took having to go to summer school to find my people, he said before telling the students that theyre already proven how setbacks can change us in ways we dont expect, and make us better, and stronger.
You guys have already proved that to everyone. You took something horrific and instead of letting it stop you, you started a movement. Not just here in Florida and not just in America, but throughout the whole world, he said. That was you, choosing to take something awful and using it to make a change. That was you, choosing hope over fear.
Keep making good choices, he added. Im not saying that because you need to learn it; Im saying it because youve already taught it to all of us.
