FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - When the Foxborough High School class of 2018 had their graduation ceremony on Sunday, they heard lots of advice about life's next steps.
But the person whose words had the most impact that day turned out to be one of their own.
Shawn MacNamara was the class president, captain of the soccer team and is headed off to study business at UMass Amherst in the fall. In his speech, he encouraged everyone to be comfortable in their own skin.
“There are 7.4 billion people on this earth. I don’t want to bring down any spirits, but hey, you can throw a ball? There's probably someone who can throw it farther," MacNamara said in his speech. "There's something we are all the best at and that's being ourselves."
And in doing so, shared something about himself with everyone -- something he'd been hiding since before he started high school.
“What I also brought with me was something I absolutely tried my hardest to bury. I’m gay. And I knew that going into high school,” he said.
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“I started writing the message and I was, like, always be yourself and I thought: how do I relay this to someone?” he told Boston 25 News on Wednesday. “Kids are always told to be themselves and it’s kind of like, whatever. Because people are always saying it. How do I make it stick?"
Shawn says he wasn't planning on coming out in his speech, but had included it in a scholarship letter he'd sent to his friend to proofread.
“She read it then sent me a Snapchat of her in tears. Like that was amazing, people need to hear this,” he said. “She was the one who recommended me putting it my in speech."
So he did. And to say Shawn made his words stick is an understatement.
“Sometimes it takes someone else seeing the good in you for you to see it in yourself," he said, pausing to choke back tears as the crowd cheered and rose to its feet.
Shawn says it felt like a weight was lifted off his shoulders after that and his only wish was that he did it sooner.
“People don’t care, they're always so accepting. And it’s just so much better when you don’t have to hide any parts of you. You can just be who you are,” he said.
Shawn says he texted his family the night before graduation and says he’s gotten nothing but support from them and all his classmates.
One of those classmates thanked Shawn afterward saying he came out to his parents because Shawn gave him the courage to do it.
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