The singer also encouraged kindness while revisiting her past at Danny Jones Middle School.
Students at Danny Jones Middle School in Grand Prairie, Texas, got the ultimate alumni visit -- Selena Gomez!
The 27-year-old songstress stopped by various classrooms to surprise kids, say hi to old teachers and recall middle school struggles like eating lunch alone.
“Hello, students of Danny Jones Middle School,” she says over the intercom, in a video posted on the Mansfield Independent School District’s website. “This is Selena Gomez talking to you.”
Followed by cameras, Gomez then explains how she wanted to take her best friend, Courtney, and staff from her record label to show the place where she grew up.
“Some of my teachers I got to see again and they were part of my life for so long,” she says.
One of those key influencers, Gomez’s former basketball coach, Stephani Gray, gushed about her former student.
“As a student, Selena was so humble and she was really kind,” Gray says. “She had a really kind, soft spirit. Hard, hard worker. Real humble. Just a real neat kid.”
Gray also recalled how she didn’t think much of it when Gomez told her how she was off to Florida to film a movie after completing her time at the school.
“She said, ‘Oh I’m just going to be in a little Disney film,’” says Gray, who later saw Gomez’s name in the credits of a Disney flick. “I said, ‘Oh. OK.’ Because sometimes middle school kids kind of exaggerate.”
According to the school district’s site, Gomez was in Grand Prairie, her hometown, filming a documentary about her childhood.
In footage from the visit, Gomez also stressed the importance of kindness, a message with extra significance given that the clip was released on World Suicide Prevention Day.
“I think it’s also important to make sure you’re being kind to someone," she says. "If you see them eating alone -- like I did while I was here -- just say 'Hi' and just encourage them in their school work and know that anything’s possible.”
See more on Gomez below.
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