Mark Wahlberg Earned His High School Diploma

Photo via Taco Bell Foundation for Teens

Mark Wahlberg has announced in an op-ed for the Huffington Post that he graduated from high school in June. He wrote:

I was fortunate to find out I could attend high school online. For almost a year, I’ve been taking classes and studying any chance I could get – on the set, traveling for work and at home. It has been both humbling and challenging, but I’m happy to report that I am officially a high school graduate, having received my diploma this summer.

Wahlberg, 42, shared with David Letterman last year that he planned to go back to school, and told People that he studied while working on films such as 2 Guns, during which he hid his studies from costar Denzel Washington. “I don’t like to count my chickens before they hatch,” he said.

Marky Mark had dropped out during the ninth grade when he was 14, but returned to set a good example for his kids. The father of four told People, “I didn’t want the kids saying, ‘You didn’t do it, so why do I need it?’ They are all wanting to do things in their future that require an education.”

Wahlberg also kept the focus of his HuffPo piece on other kids rather than himself, citing unfortunate statistics about high school dropouts and encouraging everyone to “never give up.” Of course, in true Mark Wahlberg fashion, he also not-so-subtly promoted the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation and Taco Bell Foundation for Teens, which if great because—let’s face it—education rolls off the tongue a lot better than, “Buy me and Diddy’s expensive water.”

What’s next for the high school graduate? Well, college, naturally. Wahlberg told People he’d love to study film at USC. That sounds great Mark, but before you start cramming for finals with iCarly, please please please make Ted 2. We’re dying in anticipation.