It was an early morning start for the leaders on Tuesday 16th May. The bus pulled out at 7:00 am, heading for the National Young Leaders Day held in Kirikiriroa. This year’s theme was “Leading the Self”. Self-leadership is really important as part of their leadership journey. If leaders want others to trust and believe in them as a leader, they must trust and believe in themselves.

The speakers at this year’s NYLD spoke about their journeys and how they’ve developed self-leadership. Brad Smeele, Quadriplegic Wakeboarder and Author, was the first to speak. After his accident in 2014 he told us how he was “forced to look inward”, to find a new strength. He said “Failing is just part of the process. It is part of the journey to success. A winner is a loser who kept trying”. Brad told the leaders “to limit the chance of failure is to limit success”. We saw images of Brad, holding his breath under water for five minutes and 45 seconds. Pushing himself still! He said with Attitude, Effort and Actions, you can control moving forward.

We then heard from Julia Grace, a professional speaker and award-winning singer and songwriter. She talked about mental health and how to “Be Kind To Your Mind”. She said how ‘stressed out brains are offline brains” and gave strategies to deal with that.

Wolfgang Mayal, an amazing 11 year old, talked to us about his journey, releasing several rap albums, designing the graphics for the covers himself. He talked about what inspires him, and his future goals.

We were very spoilt with entertainment; Fresh Moves Dance Crew and then Georgia Lines. She talked with the MC’s on the couch, answering questions form the leaders and then sang to us with everyone joining in. She taught the entire audience the chorus of her new song ‘Monopoly’ which was released on 19th May.

A huge day, really enjoyable with so many valuable messages.

Ali McPike

Otumoetai Intermediate School

Term 2 Week 5

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