NATIONAL YOUNG LEADERS DAY 2023

On Tuesday 30th of May, a group of 10 Year 8 students went to Dunedin for National Young Leaders Day (NYLD). We all had fun and it was a great experience we would all love to do again! We heard from some amazing speakers. Check out what we learnt from each of them!

Brad Smeele

Brad was a New Zealand wakeboarder until he had a bad accident that destroyed his career, a C4 vertebrae injury. He is a quadriplegic, and can only move his head and his shoulders up and down. The motto he lives by is “never forget yesterday, but always live for tomorrow, because you never know what it can bring or what it could take away". He also said it’s okay to make mistakes, and it’s okay to fail, but always know that you have someone to lean on. He taught us that failing is apart of the journey to great success in life, and comparison is the killer of joy.

Julia Grace

Julia is an award winning singer and songwriter who struggles with anxiety and depression, but you would never think that because she's so happy. Julia is a mental health advocate. She came up with the idea of jelly buddies, so when you're sad you have a jelly buddy to talk to. She also came up with saying "stressed out brains that are offline brains". Julia’s advice for when you're sad and have a knot in your chest is to breathe it out and shake it off! Always remember these things: Food, Fitness, Fun, Whanau and of course, be honest.

Graci Kim

Graci is a New York Times best-selling author. She failed a lot while looking for the right career path to follow. She explained it by saying “imagine having to choose your favourite flavour of ice cream without even trying any of the flavours, so you have to try them all!”. She was born in South Korea but moved to NZ with her family at the age of 3. Graci had a rough childhood and she was bullied a lot while growing up because of her culture. People spat in her face told, her she's ugly and a lot more. But she said this helped her to grow to be a strong and resilient person. She also said nothing is impossible. The word impossible is just in disguise, impossible means 'I'M POSSIBLE!'.

Georgia Latu

Georgia is a successful business woman, at the age of 16! Georgia started a poi business at the age of 12 and has over 30 volunteers/workers that help her out when she needs it. Georgia said that family will be there in the highs and lows of life, so don’t go through stuff alone even if you want to. You will always have someone, the more the merrier. Georgia told us to do what you love and never back down from your dreams in life, never give up but look after yourself. Remember you can start small but still achieve a lot!

Georgia Lines

Georgia Lines is a professional New Zealand singer and songwriter that has made over 30 songs, and a lot more that are unreleased. Georgia said that “you can’t control what others think/feel but you can control what you do about it”. She told us that even if you don’t like what you've done, write it down and see what happens. She said that you can learn alot of things from your mistakes, and YouTube! Georgia told us to keep going even if it is tough, you can always start somewhere. Her advice was that if you fail in something, get back up, dust yourself off and try again. Even if you don’t make it the second time, never give up!