The coronavirus has cancelled or postponed many high school and college graduations.
Actor Ryan Reynolds was reminiscing on his time as a high schooler at the Kitsilano Secondary School in Vancouver. He was not able to give the commencement speech in person, so he took to YouTube to congratulate the 2020 graduating class.
Reynolds started his speech by sharing that one of his close friends from Kitsilano now teaches at the school. He couldn't resist the opportunity to crack a few jokes! He said "You have a teacher by the name of Jonah Eckert, and he was a friend of mine when I was in high school. I have not seen Jonah in 1.2 million years, but in my mind's eye, he's still like a 17-year-old kid. His hair has frosted tips, he always wore shorts, I remember, even if it was minus 20."
He went on and described his two years at Kitsilano as the "best thing that ever happened" to him and shared that he's still friends with many of his graduating class.
He addresses the importance of empathy. He said "Some of you might consider me successful...but I'll tell you this: empathy has gotten me so much more, so much farther, in not only my life but in my career."
Reynolds ended the speech by telling the students that they'd be receiving a free large pizza from Nat’s Pizza, his treat! The pizzeria was one of his favorites back in high school.
The owner of the pizzeria, Nat Bastone, got a call from Reynolds on Thursday. Bastone said "He had this brilliant idea about wanting to give to the school that he went to, and all the people that meant something to him. He wanted to do something nice because all the kids got shut down for their grad."
The actor bought 385 Nat’s Pizza gift cards to be used at the students’ leisure "so they don’t all come in at once," Bastone stated.
Watch Reynolds speech below!