My name is Lehan Ranhiru Hendeniya and I am currently a year 10 student at All Saints College, Bull-Creek representing Stirling House. I have lived in Perth for 2 years and am finding the “Wildflower State” a great place to live in.
If somebody asked me if there is a valuable piece of advice that I rely on in my life it would be two things. Once my father told me “son, life is not easy, there is no free cake, you must leverage every opportunity in life to the fullest”. My second piece of advice was from Ray Dalio who is one of the world’s most accredited hedge fund owners in the world, “Successful people change in ways that allow them to take advantage of their strengths while compensating for their weaknesses”. Both pieces of advice have resonated strongly in my life and have been empirical to the successes in my life and have shown me that nothing in life is free and anybody must be prepared to work the hardest to achieve their dreams or aspirations.
I am enthusiastic about learning and I also like to do sports such as swimming and badminton. My other hobbies include reading, building and collecting Lego models, making large puzzles over 1500 pieces, reading about financial markets, derivative/forex trading and doing sports such as swimming to which I go to a state/national level. Particularly I love making large complicated puzzles – this made me to think on patterns and how my mind identify such patterns and identify right tiny shape pieces to complete puzzles fast. I have also participated in numerous cocurricular activities both inside and outside of school including Robotics club, Leo club at All Saints, debating and badminton outside of school.
All Saints College has taught me over the last two years to identify your strengths and goals you want to achieve in your life, encouraging us this through their central motto ,”Live Your Why”. I honour myself as a collaborative team player or leader in important group projects. An example is a recent English Group project on Voice and Speeches. I was able to always do the work required of the team and guide any members of team who found trouble in the task and outline where needed improvements or recommendations to enhance the outcome of the task to a high level.
I am also an adroit problem solver. I always try to find a explanation of solution to any given problem in an efficient and systematic way. I use different strategies to work around the problem or to find “an edge” into the problem. This does mean I need to be relatively flexible to change and being resilient until I find a solution. Whenever if I am doing a swimming race or working on school work I have a “never give up” attitude and will always persevere till the end. I feel this mindset has made me a rounded individual and deterministic person.
The College from the hardworking and deterministic staff and my supportive friends have guided me successfully into achieving numerous both academic and non-academic related achievements. Some of those include school swimming champion past 2 years in a row at ASC as well as achieving Champion boy every year from primary to secondary school swimming in NSW before I moved to ASC. As for out of school activities, I represented competitive swimming in state level Junior and Senior in NSW and WA. I also achieved numerous academic awards and certificates in competitions and other school academic events. Most I enjoyed of those is the number of maths competitions done at the College which continue to be a pleasure to engage in every year. I could only achieve such success due to my parents’, teachers’ and my dear friends’ support.
I am aiming to study medicine which leads to becoming a neurosurgeon as I am passionate to learn about how human brain functions. I have always revolved around the stigma of wanting to help people with their lives. From doing volunteer and charity work and from meeting people from all walks of life have made me realise the amount of suffering people have especially when it comes to neurological problems and disfunctions. It made me want to help those who are doing it tough. In order to study medicine, I need to attain an ATAR above 99 with prerequisites in the following subjects: chemistry, maths methods and a suitable UCAT (Undergraduate Clinical Admissions Test) score. From there I would need to complete a bachelors degree in medicine (MBBS) or do a bachelors degree relating to medicine such as Bachelor of Biomedicine. I would then have to do a postgraduate degree for Doctor of Medicine (MD), complete junior doctor training for at least two years then move on the doing a masters in neurosurgery before training for at least another 2 years to become a fully qualified neurosurgeon. I stride to work dedicatedly towards this task.
I can’t wait to experience what the future holds for me in my next part of my life and for the next set of challenges and experiences that unfold for me to explore.