Teenager crosses highway to get to graduation on time amid traffic

A California teenager wasn't going to let anything stop her from attending her high school graduation – not even traffic.

The teen's mother, Araceli Ureño, shared a video on Instagram last week capturing the dramatic sequence of events that began with the family facing the disappointing reality that the graduate was likely going to miss her ceremony.

Ureño's video begins with footage of the family — who were on their way to the graduation ceremony on Highway 91 in Anaheim — in their car, coming to a complete stop in a busy line of traffic in the middle of this which Ureño described in his caption as a “dead end” font.

“POV: On the way to my daughter's graduation,” she wrote in a text over images of stopped traffic and a fleet of police vehicles, armored trucks and officers, some with guns in hand, on the highway.

According to Los Angeles Timespolice were actively searching for a man who had violated a domestic violence restraining order and the pursuit shut down traffic on Highway 91 for six hours on May 24.

“Looks like we won't make it ,” Ureño added in a second text caption on his video.

“Well, it looks like my baby is missing her graduation,” she can then be heard saying out loud as the camera pans to her daughter, dressed in a blue and white floral dress, her ball cap graduation and a Class of 2024 sash decorated with badges and medals.

Then the clip cuts to footage of the teen crying and wiping away tears as other motorists on the highway begin excitedly honking their horns and shouting “Congratulations!” » in honor of his graduation.

“Thank you for your support ,” Ureño wrote of the clip.

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Then came the incredible moment that proved just how determined the teen was to join her classmates for graduation. “But her dad said 'not today,'” Ureño wrote of images of his daughter and father crossing the highway together.

“I drove down the 91 Fwy to go to her graduation,” Ureño added, before sharing a clip of the teen in her cap and gown rushing to the graduation venue with minutes to spare .

“Her ceremony was almost over,” Ureño said. “Her advisor had security escort her to make sure she was walking.”

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The video ends with the teenager proudly displaying her diploma, before joining her fellow graduates by symbolically moving the tassel of her cap from right to left and clapping enthusiastically.

“She did it! ,” her mother wrote in a caption.

In a follow-up Instagram post, Ureño revealed that her daughter was interviewed by Ryan Seacrest for his radio show and shared a clip of the conversation.

“It was like watching a movie: How is it going to end?” Seacrest said in the clip of the dramatic highway incident.

“I had already accepted the fact that I might miss [the graduation]”, but I didn't think the standoff was going to last that long,” the new graduate remembers, before explaining that she got out of the family car following her mother's suggestion to “get rid of her nerves” and stretch your legs. .

When people saw her wearing the cap and gown, “they just started honking and celebrating for me,” she said, noting that “it was so amazing I started crying.” “.

“It really showed that humanity is not lost because no one knew me there and they still came together to celebrate me,” she added.

She also told Seacrest that she and her father ended up walking to the nearest freeway exit, where her uncle was waiting to pick them up and drive them to the graduation venue.