House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries delivered the keynote address at Kingsborough Community College’s graduation on Wednesday, urging students to stay resilient in the face of adversity.
"When life knocks you down, don't give up, get up," the congressman from Brooklyn told the crowd at the Coney Island Amphitheater.
Jeffries put a modern take on Winston Churchill's famous lines: "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."
"I'll put it a different way. A knockdown is different than a knock out. That's the Hakeem Jeffries remix, ya'll," he said.
Jeffries talked about growing up in a working class family in Crown Heights, and then attending Midwood High School, SUNY Binghamton, Georgetown University and The New York University School of Law before being elected to the state Assembly and finally to the U.S. Congress.
He said he's had many moments of unexpected adversity, including losing two elections before becoming a state assemblyman in 2007.
"That's just the realities of life. Many of you have already overcome turbulence. That's why you're sitting you right now, as graduates of 2025," he told the CUNY students.
He advised the graduates to brush off the doubters and haters in life and keep marching towards your dream.
"That's your story. That's your possibility. You are America and America is you," he said.
