Dividends of honesty | Daily News

Dividends of honesty

Lyceum College, Panadura
Head Boy of Lyceum Panadura Sanuda Ranawake & Head Girl of Lyceum Panadara Dinithi Perera. Pictures by Sarath Peiris
Head Boy of Lyceum Panadura Sanuda Ranawake & Head Girl of Lyceum Panadara Dinithi Perera. Pictures by Sarath Peiris

When the pressure is on and you have to perform you find the strength within you. Perfect Prefects features Head Boy of Lyceum Panadura Sanuda Ranawake and Head Girl of Lyceum Panadara Dinithi Perera who have been trained to be efficient leaders.

Perera believes that confidence and honesty can remove a ton of distress. When you are honest you do yourself a great duty and you also make it easy for others to work with you. When you are honest and self- confident you have that sense of well- being. You are fair to yourself and you are fair to others. You can accomplish your goals with clarity,

“A proper role model should be kind, should care about everyone and should always try to do the right thing as much as possible. He or she should be honest, and his/her honesty should go hand in hand with his/her confidence. As an honest and confident leader, he/she should be able to handle pressure and work in whatever circumstances he or she is in.

Role model

Perera is a someone who takes up a challenge analytically. She approaches a problem in a very organized way.

“When facing a challenge it could be best if you take it to step by step, just lay it all out and tackle every step as it comes along,” said Perera.

Family and friendship is one reason why Perera is successful. Along with her confidence comes the support she has from her loved ones.

“When talking about my secret to success as a Head Girl, my role model has been my sister. She was the former head girl of Lyceum Panadura as well. I have always admired her, and what she used to do and she has helped me a lot throughout this journey. I get help from my friends and family and I must say that I am confident and I can face the world,” said Perera.

Perera points out that Lyceum instils excellent values in its students. The environment is very conducive for learning and the teachers are extremely helpful.

“I have been to Lyceum Panadura since I started schooling and it has given me a lot of friends. We are always taught good values - being loving and caring and being honest. Our seniors have been very exemplary characters throughout the past and still are. Everyone is supportive and helps out, moulding us into being better characters,” said Perera

Meaningful life

Perera has received so much from Lyceum, that she is equipped to help others in society. She feels that our values are what makes life meaningful and defines who we are as a human race.

“I would like to pass on the values that we all have so that the new generation will have better qualities and retain our values, love their parents and take care of this earth will live in,” said Perera.

Perera has an upbeat attitude and is ready to face life’s challenges and enjoy life. However, she has never forgotten her calling in life which is to help those who are experiencing a lot of distress in their minds. Too often we think that we are all alone. But there are so many out there with similar problems or even worse than ours.

“One thing that concerns me is the psychological problems that kids have today. Young kids suffer from depression and being stressed and they have a whole lot of problems that are not addressed. I would like to do something regarding that. I want to help children understand that the world is not all bad. And if we have self- confidence we can overcome the negativity and reduce all of it and stop the suicidal rate,” said Perera

Passion and challenge

“I am thinking about doing a degree in biomedical sciences and once I complete, that I want to go wherever life takes me and face any challenge and find my passion from there on,” Perera

Head Boy of Lyceum Panadura Sanuda Ranawake points out that having a Head Prefect is something that makes a difference in the lives of students in Sri Lanka. Because there is always someone that is there if you need to speak to someone other than your parents. Someone who has probably gone through what you are going through.

“I think the main kind of role model any young people need is someone they can look up to. If I see Bill Gates, he is like a role model, because he has a lot of exemplary characteristics, so we too need to display those exemplary characteristics. One thing is we need to be honest with people. We should not lie or cheat. We need to take care of people really well. As prefects, we have a lot of experience. We should be very nice to people. If we don’t do that we get into a lot of trouble with people. So that is what makes a really good role model,” said Ranawake.

When facing a difficulty Ranawake, tries to understand if he has faced such a situation before. He also looks towards those who are wise enough to help him.

“Any time I get a problem, one thing I look at is my past experiences. I try to see what happened in the past and then I try to solve the problem I am experiencing at the present. I even look at the people I know, the role models I have, and I try and get a solution from them. It could be my parents or teachers it could be any person I could learn something from, and solve that problem,” said Ranawake

Leadership role

Ranawake too like Perera has a support system. A group of people who love him no matter what.

“My secret to success is that I am an announcer in the school and that has given me self- confidence and even from my younger days announcing has helped me become a leader, and take leadership roles. The other thing is my parents. No matter what happens even if there is a huge problem they stick behind my back and they help me and they are the ones in the end who help me get through that,” said Ranawake.

Like Perera, he too feels that values must be passed down to the younger generation. That is what we are like as a human race. We want to pass down something of ourselves to our children. So that who we are may never die.

“One of the things I would like to do is to pass on my leadership characteristics onto the younger ones. That would be my ultimate goal. Also when it comes to my personal ambitions, from a very young age I wanted to become a computer programmer. Another goal I want to achieve is to become a journalist because I like to report on things and tell the truth,” added Ranawake.

Cruelty is something that Ranawake is appalled by. He is greatly distressed and horrified by this cruelty.

“War really hurts me. Even if I see something on the news because of war it really hurts me. It is really depressing and hard to look at. Another thing is getting people to use new technologies. Plans to give technology to all part of the world and Sri Lanka really get me excited. That is one of my main passions to get technology and reduce the war and the violence,” explains Ranawake


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