This Egyptian student's graduation speech has gone viral

Last weekend, the American University in Cairo (AUC) bid farewell to its graduating class of 2017. 

While the ceremony made the usual headlines in local newspapers, on social media, it was a graduate student's speech that caught everyone's attention.

Ali Shaltout, a double major graduate who was selected to give a speech at the ceremony, stole the show with a lighthearted yet inspiring address that has now gone viral. 

The Mechanical Engineering/Accounting graduate refused to "gravitate towards sharing a deep motivational message."

Instead, he shared a more realistic one, urging people not to treat life like a marathon. 

"Our time at AUC was not about training us for the marathon of life so we can keep running from the moment we graduate until the moment we die. Rather it was about guiding us to realize that even if life is a race, it is not a marathon, it's our best lap time race." 

"We as human beings are defined by experiences rather than results," he added. 

Shaltout ended his speech with what he called an ultimate "deep message," asking his fellow graduates to "just chill." 

A video of Shaltout's address was shared via AUC's Facebook page on Sunday.  

Since then, it has garnered over 410,000 views, with thousands taking to the platform to share their thoughts on it.