"I forgot a lot of things. I forgot how to walk. I forgot how to talk. But I didn't forget how to eat," joked Balaal Hollings as he addressed his classmates at graduation.

Hollings was shot in the head outside of his friend's birthday party on April 6. He's an honor student, football player, and senior class president at Northwestern High School. The bullet entered Hollings' temporal lobe, the part of the brain that controls memory, emotions, hearing, language, and learning.

"I had missed her dinner, so I promised to make it to the party," Hollings told ABCNews.com. "After the party, some East Side boy was shooting for no reason. A bullet hit the wall, and then it hit me."

After a two-week stint in the hospital, Hollings was transferred to a rehabilitation facility where he re-learned how to walk and talk. Hollings' sister didn't allow his classmates to visit during his recovery so that he could focus on getting better.

The charismatic 18-year-old's doctors said that based on the pace of his recovery, he would be in rehab until at least June 15. But Hollings would not accept that date. He wanted to walk across the stage and get his diploma with the rest of his senior classmates.

"He advanced way faster than we thought that he would," his sister said. "He was just fighting so hard. He looked up, and it was like, 'Oh my God, it's my brother again!'"

Hollings wasn't officially released from the rehabilitation center until June 3, but he was able to attend graduation and give a speech that left all of his friends in tears. He intends to begin college in January 2014, studying criminal justice or law.

Wednesday night, Hollings threw the first pitch at a Detroit Tigers game, where he told ABC affiliate WXYZ that he "wants people to know that through faith, anything is possible."