Roger Price (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, congratulations! The following is a shortened speech by Fiona Selimi, the dux of Rooty Hill High School:

Aristotle quotes “Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly, we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” This leads me to believe that perhaps achieving ones potential and surpassing it essentially relies on the ability for one to continuously pursue and persist with the challenges life heaves at us. Coincidently, Persist is Rooty Hill High School’s motto which goes with participation, excellence, respect and responsibility, safety, innovation, success and teamwork. Therefore excellence to me is, as Aristotle quotes, not an act but a habit. Attaining excellence involves having to sacrifice, and I sacrificed many things, my friends, my family and even myself. Seeing that 90.25 as my UAI gave me a tremendous sense of triumph and joy as I knew that within the situation I was in, I couldn’t have done any better. Most of you wouldn’t know this, but I worked 6 nights a week and weekends at my family business, totalling an average 40 hours per week. I didn’t have time to catch up with friends or family, all my days entailed were school and work then sleep, but I thought to myself, if I can attain the best mark possible and go to uni, then during that 5 month break once the HSC has finished I can go out and have a good time, and it was quite hard missing all my friends birthdays, parties and generally just hanging out, but that sacrifice led me to where I am today—attending the University of Sydney for a Bachelor in Applied Science, Medical Radiation Science, Diagnostic Radiography. The HSC takes an emotional toll on anyone who partakes in it, whether they want to become a doctor, a lawyer or both it takes an immense amount of commitment, dedication and persistence in order to achieve your desired goals, but nothing is impossible. Education is power, which is why it is so significant to actually attain a great education, something that I accomplished whilst attending Rooty Hill High. The fact that classes became smaller enabled all my teachers to evenly focus all their attention on every single student therefore most teachers will go beyond that student/teacher relationship to actually become your friend and in turn, constructing a strong and caring relationship with most, if not all their students. Most teachers provided me with their emails and contact numbers so I could get in touch with them after school hours and during the holidays if I had any questions, which to me was one of the most considerate things any individual could do, so I thank each and every one of them for that. 2007 for me was quite a unique year; it was an emotional and physical rollercoaster with experiences of extreme angst, happiness and stress. The HSC itself was perhaps 60 percent of my own hard work and 40 percent of support and encouragement from others. I would first and foremost like to thank my family, especially my mother, my father for his constant support, Jasmine for her exceptionally wise advice and her ability to drill those rational thoughts back into my head every time I had the urge to drop out of year 12, Sami, my brother who was the most influential person during my entire education and who literally took timeout of his own busy schedule running our family business to help me out whenever I needed it. My best friends of course, Loren and Roxanne, where would I be without the both of you, your support and constant encouragement led me to where I am today and for that I thank you both. As I speak here now, this very moment, my aim is to inspire any candidates completing their HSC in 2008, at Rooty Hill High to try their best, because at the end of the day that is the only thing that matters, if you try your best and exceed your potential, then anything is possible. “The impossible is nothing and nothing is impossible.” That is my quote for today and hopefully it will be used in speeches to come, just as Aristotle’s quote was used in mine.

Fiona Selimi’s mother died when Fiona was in year 10—and they rubbish us westies. I seek leave to table the full speech.

Leave granted.

See this speech in context