Griffin Furlong began his valedictorian speech like a lot of people do, but he added a fact that changed everything. He had been struggling with homelessness for 12 years.
“Giving up is never an option…Everyone thinks I try to make good grades because I’m smart. Not true. I perform the way I do in the classroom because I have everything to lose,” said Furlong.
His mother died when was only six years old. His family went through some rough patches after that. They moved around. He went to sleep hungry a lot of nights.
Even his teachers didn’t know. One of his teachers, Natalie Donald told reporters, “I actually cried when I saw it on the news. He’s made straight As across the board in my class, and he never once used his circumstances as a crutch to justify not being able to do anything.”
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