Do not be afraid to dream big

Opening assembly speech by Dominic Nguyen, Year 12 student

Good morning, friends. Today, I am both honoured and extremely humbled with this opportunity to address you all. For those who do not know me, my name is Dominic Thanh Tam Nguyen, I am a Year 12 student, and I would like to tell you a story. When I was a young fellow, aged five, I started kindergarten at St John?s Primary school, in Florey. Like many of you, my first day at school was an anxious one. There were no recognisable faces, no names that were familiar to the ear, and most frightening of all, towering figures that would lead me around this bizarre environment. At this point in my story, I am certain that most of you are wondering what the big deal is? ?I?m sure first days at school are normally like that, Dom, you silly boy.? To those who may be thinking this, I take the opportunity to tell you how my first day of school may have been slightly different to yours.

For the first five years of my life, I only spoke Vietnamese, which at that time, I would have considered to be my first language, or mother tongue. So evidently, as you all can probably assume, my anxious first day experience was heightened to a whole different level. The voices that were spoken around me were unusual and completely alien to me. The very basic yet infinitesimally complex language barrier had reduced me to a complete outsider to those who I could physically touch but not truly communicate with. This experience that I had as a young child may seem silly to many of you and most of you may not be able to relate to uniqueness of the sensation. However, for the majority of you who only speak English, if any of you get the chance, or have already visited another nation where English is not spoken, the feeling is very much the same as you try to communicate with locals but are reduced to an absurd and passive object that stands awkwardly, looking for its place in the society or community that it wishes to be a part of.

Despite how melodramatic I had just made it sound, the whole experience was not that bad. My teacher helped me find my nametag with my new English speaker friendly name, Dominic printed on it (as up until this point I had gone by my Vietnamese names). In retrospect, I would most likely consider this point in my life as the most significant revolution in thinking that I have undergone. I began to dream about being able to speak and understand this quirky and exceptionally confusing thingamajig known as the English language. I constantly set myself goals of being able to achieve this, whether it be reading (albeit initially with great difficulty), writing short adventure stories in my school scrapbook (with most excellent illustrations done by yours truly, of course), or even simply chatting with my peers and interacting with them. Admittedly, these were largely small goals for myself to achieve. However, they all contributed to the ultimate aspirations that I had wished to achieve.

Throughout our relatively short and sweet lives, we almost invariably put ourselves on a path to fulfil the expectations placed upon us by external forces within our society, whether it be our parents, guardians, or the social norms that we choose to comply with under our own predisposition, the list really does goes on, and I am sure we do not have the time to explore it completely as we have to go to have our recess very shortly. However, despite these constraints we should strive to dream big and set out our own goals.

This being said, I immediately understand if many of you think if this is all just idealistic nonsense. On the surface, this mindset could largely be perceived as such. However, your goals do not have be enormous in order for you to enact great change within yourself, and perhaps around yourself. Be as pragmatic as you wish, whether it be assigning yourself to do an extra hour of homework every night, getting stuff done early, becoming organised, or even cleaning the rubbish tip you like to call your bedroom. My friends, you do not have to be outrageous and revolutionary with your goals. Ultimately, every small, practical goal you set is a building block for you to achieve your dreams, however outwardly and far-reaching they may be.

For those younger members in our audience who might not completely understand me, I say this to you: Do not be afraid to ask, do not be afraid to dream big. But most importantly, stay off the red cordial, you?ll drive your parents and teachers nuts.

I?d like to end on a quote from one of my favourite Simpsons episodes. In Bart?s Inner Child, which is the fifteenth episode of the fifth season of the Simpsons, Homer decides to start charging kids to use a trampoline, which he got from Krusty the Clown. After the business dismally fails, Homer reflects, saying: ?OK, the trampoline was a bad idea. But you know what? At least I?m out there trying new things.? This simple message from the absent minded Homer is so relevant to what my story has been about, and more importantly, what your stories should be about. In our drawn out paths to reach our dreams, we certainly make mistakes, we make wrong decisions, however, trying new things and setting new goals to achieve our the deep-rooted dreams are so very much important.

So as I stand here now before you, I can see that at least one of my dreams has indeed been achieved. However, I prepare to leave school at the end of this year, I?m sure new ideas, dreams and goals will come through. I have broken the language barrier and am able to talk to wonderful bunch of people. Good luck, Radford College, may 2015 be a year for you to imagine great things, through the goals that you set forth to accomplish. My friends, do not waste any time. Go out and do it, do it now.

Thank you, and God bless.

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