On April 6, Balaal Hollings, a Detroit high school honor student, football star and the student council and class president, was shot in the head at a birthday party. Two months later, Hollings, surprisingly showed up at his gradation with his classmates.
The bullet that hit Hollings entered his temporal lobe, and he was hospitalized for two weeks, his older sister said. The shooter has not been identified. After being released from the hospital, Hollings entered a rehab facility facility, ABC News said.
His sister indicated that he did not allow his friends and classmates to visit him while he was working on his recovery.
"He advanced way faster than we thought that he would," his sister said. "He was just fighting so hard. He looked up, and it was like, 'Oh my God, it's my brother again!'"
When Hollings took to the podium, his friends and classmates were amazed just by seeing him.
"First of all, I want to thank God. It is so good to be alive," he said . "I got shot in the head, and I am fully rehabilitated. I forgot a lot of stuff. I forgot how to walk. I forgot how to talk. I didn't forget how to eat!"
"I just winged it," he told ABCNews.com. "I talked to them about unity. And the difficulty of graduation, and moving on. That we don't forget about each other."
In January, he plans to study criminal justice or law at Lakeland College in Sheboygan Wisconsin.
On Thursday evening, Hollings will throw out the first pitch at the Detroit Tigers game.
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