Saturday, June 19, 2010

An autistic student's inspirational graduation speech

This week is full of awesome people with special powers—first Zach Anner, the guy with cp who's winning America's hearts in the Oprah My Own Show contest (and my new crush), and now Eric Duquette, a salutatorian at his high school in Smithfield, Rhode Island, who happens to have autism. Thanks to reader Marcy Nordstrom for this video about his graduation speech, she's always sending me cool stuff.

7 comments:

  1. That brought tears to my eyes. Very inspiring!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I watched that clip of the graduation speech a couple of days ago & bawled my eyes out. I loved the part when he mentioned that the so-called experts were right about him "being in an institution". :) Stories like these are what help me push through the bad days.....So inspirational!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is such a beautiful little video, and has been picked up by mainstream media, too! I love the part at the end where he ways "Never underestimate the power of a smile", then looks up and grins!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Loved (and shared) this video..

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you. We do not know where life will take us. smgoodie

    ReplyDelete
  6. With a son who will be starting high school in the fall and also diagnosed autistic, Eric's great accomplishments and speech has brought tears to my eyes and has given me great hope for my own son. How wonderful! His mom and dad must be the happiest parents on earth!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you so much for sharing this video! I just finished watching and have tears streaming down my face. This is a true inspiration to all of us parents who are out their fighting for our children!!!!! Thanks!!!!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for sharing!