Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In a few months, our year 12 students will be taking their final exams. It's hard to believe this milestone represents the culmination of 13 years of schooling. To our year 12 students in Higgins: you belong to a special club. Not only are you transitioning to adulthood; you are a part of a generation that has been buffeted by a pandemic, the last of which was seen nearly 100 years ago and is only remembered by a few of our elders. You have weathered a loss of autonomy over the past two years, a loss of connection with your friends and, in some cases, the loss of loved ones. Yet you are here. It speaks volumes that you have shown up every morning to the kitchen table, to your school desks and to each other. You have already passed—no, sailed through—several tests; you just don't know it.

As you prepare for another volley of tests, understand the exams you take will not define you. Life is a series of chapters, from your chubby years to the formative ones and thence on to adulthood. You are closing one chapter but have many more to author. Go well, young ones, with purpose, knowing you have way more options than you think.