Nursing student gets subway ceremony after getting stuck on the way to graduation

Public transit is great, except when it breaks down. And unfortunately for one nursing student, the New York subway train he was taking to his graduation ceremony had technical difficulties at the worst possible time.

According to a Facebook user who was on the same train as nursing student Jerich Marco Alcantara, their fellow riders quickly realized that Alcantara was about to miss a big moment, and they decided to help. Complete with a soundtrack—Green Day’s “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)”—the train rallied together to throw a makeshift graduation ceremony for the soon-to-be nurse, who was all ready to go in his cap and gown. Nadiya Afzal filmed the whole thing, and more than two million people have watched it on her Facebook page.

“Poor kid missed his graduation because of the train delay this morning….so we threw him a graduation on the train,” she wrote with the video:

Close to 3,000 people have commented on the video, with all kinds of reactions. Some, like Facebook user Lisa Giovannini-Melby, were touched by the impromptu ceremony. She wrote, “…Here’s to you and your fellow commuters for extending yourselves to cheer up this young man and help keep his day special. Acts of kindness like this are what is right with the world.”

Many others, though, questioned how in the world this New Yorker failed to plan ahead in order to make sure that not even a train delay would ruin his graduation.

Other viewers who watched the video immediately thought back to their favorite ’90s show: “Full House.” In the season six episode “Subterranean Graduation Blues,” part of season six, Uncle Jesse gets stuck on the subway on his way to graduation, and the Tanner crew decides to start a graduation ceremony of their own in the train car, possibly inspiring this year’s New York riders.

No matter the reactions, though, Alcantara is now officially graduated.

Congratulations!