Student With Autism Give Moving Graduation Speech at Texas High School

A Plano high school student diagnosed with autism delivered a powerful speech during a Texas graduation ceremony that had the audience cheering and leaping to their feet in an awe-inspiring moment that was uploaded and shared on Facebook more than 7,000 times.

Plano Senior High School was holding its graduation ceremony last week when they brought up a special guest to speak. Sef Scott, a graduating senior at the high school with autism and social communication disorder, is known at his school for not normally speaking in public. But, when Sef stepped up to the microphone, he surprised his classmates with an inspirational and beautiful speech.

"I would imagine that to the seniors that know who I am that it is entirely unexpected that I would be standing here giving a speech," Scott began. "I have autism and a social communication disorder. Just by my being here, speaking to all of you - that alone is unexpected."

His 9-year-old brother, Sim was his inspiration, Scott said during the speech. Sim had recently survived a brain tumor and given speeches about his ordeal, which had in turn, given him the courage to speak at his graduation. 

"My brother Sim is a 9-year brain tumor survivor who has given dozens of speeches to raise money for various children's charities since 2009. So with his help and that of my mother, we worked sentence by sentence to make my voice heard," Scott said. 

The five-minute speech was an uplifting reminder to Scott's fellow students to always live their lives to the fullest and appreciate everything it has to offer. 

"Don't follow someone else's dreams. Don't waste time on something you never wanted. Do the unexpected. It is your life that you are living, not anyone else's. So do what fulfills you. Don't fear the future. Don't fear the unknown. Will it be unexpected? Yes. Yes, it will. But that does not make it wrong," said Scott. 

Scott's speech concluded with thunderous applause from the audience and a standing ovation. The Plano Independent School District uploaded footage of the moment, which you can watch below. 


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