Hi everyone, my name is Sam, and I am the Year 10 Prefect for 2022. I’ve always wondered what I would write for my Perfect Speech, and as always I waited till the night before to do it.

I didn’t want to just use my whole speech telling you how important it is to take up opportunities, so instead I wanted to share a more personal story, in hopes that it will inspire at least one person to try something new, and find something that makes them happy.

Before Covid, back when we had whole school assemblies (the good old days), I remember sitting at the very back of the hall nearing the end of year 10, we had a speaker come in from the Dunedin Youth Council, trying to recruit new members for 2020. I decided that I would apply just to see where the application went. I sent it in the next day and forgot about it over the next couple weeks.

I then got the email, congratulating me on becoming a new member of the Dunedin Youth Council for 2020. Little did I know that this very email was the start of something amazing. Later that month, orientation day came, I was very nervous, but after I started talking to the incredible, like-minded people I was surrounded by, the feeling of nervousness went away.

Many topics came to light that made me feel incredibly grateful that I had the opportunity to be there. Things like environmentalism, helping the community, and working with the youth of Dunedin. A few of these topics went further than just discussion, and turned into large social media posts, or even an event. The two years I sat on the Youth Council, gave me countless amounts of opportunities to get myself involved within the community, which I am very thankful for everyday.

Now many of you will be sitting there thinking that something like this may be your worst nightmare, and that’s okay, getting yourself into community and meeting new people is not everyone's thing. But my main message today is to find something that makes you happy, something that you are passionate about. And just to finish off, a quote from Luke Hemmings - “Find something that makes you happy and don’t let anyone take it away from you”.

Thank you