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Ryan Reynolds Gave A Virtual Commencement Address And Free Pizza To His Old High School

Updated August 16, 2021

Graduating high school is a monumental moment in your life, and for a lot of students, they don't get the full experience this year. Luckily for one group of students at a high school in Canada, they got a special surprise from Ryan Reynolds.

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Ryan attended Kitsilano Secondary School in Vancouver when he was a teenager.

Instagram | @vancityreynolds

Along with sending the news that each student would be getting a free large pizza from a local chain on him, Ryan said that the school was "the best thing that ever happened" to him.

Ryan also took the time to put a current teacher on blast.

"You have a teacher by the name of Jonah Eckert, and he was a friend of mine when I was in high school," Ryan joked. "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."

"Now, I'm probably not going to drop and mics here... but I can pass on this one little chestnut of wisdom," Ryan said.

YouTube | Ryan Reynolds

"Something that you might want to start if you're not already doing it. Totally up to you, no pressure, but one thing that's worked for me is practicing some form of compassion every day whether its' for yourself or someone, especially for someone else, is good."

"You've heard the expression 'divide and conquer,' you see it everywhere and dividing people is just a means to distract them, disarm them, whereby giving one an opportunity to conquer, and the world seems to subsist on this idea more and more and more. And it's getting really boring."

"It's just overdone and I think that you guys want to be stylish and ahead of the curve. And I believe that your generation will be. So maybe practice the opposite, practice empathy."

"Some of you might consider me successful. I don't know some of you might've seen Green Lantern, 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."

Instagram | @vancityreynolds

"It's allowed me to fully accept and provide love. It's helped me recognize the mistakes I've made and learn from them. Above all it made me happy," he said. "It's something I'll probably be working on my whole life."

What an amazing surprise for the students!

You can watch the video message for yourself right here.

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