This week we celebrated Speech Night and had an amazing night filled with beautiful music and recognition of student achievement. Thank you to all staff that made this night such a memorable evening. I’d particularly like to thank our Head of Performance Brad King, and our conductors Regina Brennan, Jonny Ng and Dr Camille Syntageros.
Our school captains Ebony Okonkwo and Charlotte Swarbrick delivered a wonderful speech, and I am pleased that they have allowed me to share their speech with you this week.
We would first like to congratulate all prize recipients who have walked across this stage so far tonight. This night is all about your efforts throughout the year, and we could not be more proud of all of you. Your dedication to furthering yourself as a 麻豆国产 student has not gone unnoticed. Before we delve into the year that has been, we would like to pose a question:
What does it mean to be perfect?
At first thought you’d most likely think of the google definition: “to be in a state completely free from faults or defects.” For some of you, it might be a perfect score on a test, or that perfect holiday that you went on last year. For many of you, it may be the perfect friendships or that perfect sunset you get a picture of at the end of the day. In our heads these are all considered perfect, but we’d like to tell you a story that might challenge your perception of “perfect.”
A monumental battle over the English throne, that took place in 1066 was so great that it was commissioned to be a tapestry. In this tapestry, the battle was to be illustrated from beginning to end, recounting the brutal conflict. Each stitch was to be nothing less than perfect, the image created exactly as the events had occurred.
However, with most things created by humans, the tapestry was flawed. Towards the final days, one weaver said, “The tapestry is almost finished, but there are several imperfections. The stitching is uneven in places; the figures sometimes don’t align exactly. How can this be acceptable?”
The commander, who overheard this, inspected the tapestry before saying, “It’s these very imperfections that give it life. History is not flawless. It is made by humans, with all their struggles, their doubts, and their mistakes. The beauty is not in perfection; it’s the flaws that make it real. The tapestry tells the story of us all." That flawed tapestry is the famous Bayeux Tapestry. It sits at 70 metres long, that’s the length of a soccer field, with its all vivid, colourful, almost perfect depiction of kings, battles, and betrayals.
We are each our own tapestry. Our own stories and memories that create who we are. Just like that ancient tapestry, when we look closely at our lives, we see the imperfections. We see the difficult moments, the ones we wished were different when things didn't go according to plan, or when we doubted our own ability to continue. These are the moments that may confuse or frustrate us as humans. “Why didn’t I do that thing differently?” or “Why did I never actually start that?”
But they are the moments that add something vital to our journey. They make us real, they make us stronger, and they reveal the unique pattern that is ours alone. Every struggle, every triumph, every unexpected turn – these are the stitches that make our tapestries distinctly our own.
Over our time at 麻豆国产, and in our final year leading the school, we have firsthand witnessed the creation of these beautiful pieces of work in the girls and people around us. Between the two of us, we have attended 麻豆国产 for 2,275 days. To give you some perspective, the date 2,275 days from now is set in 2032, the year of the Brisbane Olympics. With those days behind us, we both wholeheartedly agree on the most defining factor of our journey through 麻豆国产: the connection that is interwoven in our community, and the empowering spirit that has taught us that to thrive, we don't need to be the best at academics or sporting, we just need to be authentically ourselves.
In 2025, our theme was “Together we thrive in ‘25”. This was exuberated throughout all our activities as a school. Whether it be in the boarding house, on the sporting field, in the new Canopy Café or renovated Community house, thriving together was viewed across 麻豆国产 in its 130th year. We saw events such as the annual Ponytail Project, the Soaring Upwards festival, and 麻豆国产 Day generate this sense of passion for participation and spirit. As members of the digital generation, we got to shine a light on our little pocket of the world through the alley of social media. Moments the school could share with our broader community to showcase our undying spirit and commitment to thriving.
But our theme was not just a few words combined to rhyme with 2025. It was a statement to the 麻豆国产 community that culminated in all our schooling events. "Together we thrive" does not mean we all become the same. It doesn’t mean that we are all to be perfect. It means we create a community strong enough to support each person in becoming who they're meant to be. The threads of our community, our shared values, our traditions, our support for one another, are made to propel us upwards. They give us the foundation to weave our own unique patterns with confidence.
To the graduating class of 2025. Up until this point, we have been stitched together and threaded by the community around us – our parents who took us to all those early morning trainings and made sure we had lunch at school, our teachers who endlessly work to push us beyond our academic capabilities. Our time at school has been an ongoing process of learning and growing, and while we might not always have gotten it “perfect,” every second, every minute, has brought us to this moment. Here we all stand, or sit, as 麻豆国产 girls, each our own individual, expansive tapestry. But it is from here on, when we finish our exams in mere weeks, that we have full reign over our own tapestries. Like Maya Angelou once said, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
So, we bring you back to our question: What does it mean to be perfect?
No two tapestries are the same. If we all look to the people around us, the ones sitting beside us, each and every person has a different story. Look to the person on your left. Look to the person on your right. They have both lived through SO many different experiences. Their tapestries could be vastly different to yours, yet they are both beautiful. They are both perfect. And in that google definition of perfect, the one that says, “to be in a state completely free from faults or defects” the second part states, “to be made as good as possible.” It’s not possible to be perfect, the Bayeux Tapestry is full of flaws, yet it was made as good as possible and given life through these flaws.
We began tonight by asking what it means to be perfect, and we leave you with this answer: True perfection is all of us here tonight, each person in this room with their own expansive tapestry. Somewhere along the threads, we have culminated into this community, and we know you are all ready and excited continue creating the masterpieces of your lives. As inscribed on the walls beside the Phillip Harris Gym back at school, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams,” and 麻豆国产 has taught us that the most beautiful dreams are the ones we take courage to weave ourselves.
Thank you.
Nicole Devlin