National Young Leaders Day 2018

National Young Leaders Day

“Click” I had just opened the door to the bus and jumped out, I was so energetic I wanted to scream!!!!!! I walked across the road until I got to the other side it was so windy I had to run behind the cover, when Mangaweka came we sprinted inside then we walked to our seats on our way some people were waving at me but when I was at my seat I noticed they were waving at the camera. Suddenly two people popped out they were the hosts and their names were Christian Gallen and Liz Alexander they talked about what was going to happen in the day but what I really thought was they should actually start the awesome day. Then we practised how we were going to present the people onto stage so they brought someone up to be the special leader we started to thump our feet and they made their way onto the stage. Then we did it again but in real life and Kelly Wilson came out and everyone started to scream. They nearly made me deaf!

Suddenly she started to talk about how she became who she is now so she first started when she was young not knowing who or what she was going to be but finally when she was about 18 her friend asked her about what she would be but she did not know so she wrote 100 things she wanted to do in her life and right now she has done about 90 of them and she has made a whole other list and she has done about 20 of them. The things she wrote on the list were like holding snakes, climbing ice cracks and taming kaimanawas. All of the things on the list looked scary or pretty hard. When she was little her family were very poor so they lived in tents and cowsheds then Kelly Wilson finished talking and walked off. Then suddenly there was a huge thumping sound and Lisa Tamati came out there was an amazingly loud scream coming from the audience.

Then Lisa Tamati started to talk she told us that she had ran across the black death desert which was the hottest desert in the world, she was the third lady to the finish line. She talked about how she became a professional ultra marathon runner and said to keep trying wherever your going or whatever your doing just keep trying. Then one day her mother was very sick and she was in hospital and Lisa Tamati told her mother to try to survive and she would make it without dying and she is now fine and doesn’t have to go to hospital by sickness. Then when shed stopped talking she walked off. When she finished talking I was really happy because I could stretch my arms and legs while having morning tea. About 30 minutes later…….. Okay everybody sit back into your seats and listen to Jono Naylor and everyone started to thump their feet again. Then I obviously heard a whole lot of screams because Jono Naylor is Palmerston North’s mayor.

Then suddenly Jono Naylor started to talk just like all the other leaders. He talked about HOPE, the H stands for humility so to give credit, then the O stands for others focused so to put others in front of you and the P stands for play to your strengths so keep trying to figure out things and the final letter is E it stands for extend yourself so to embrace and take risks. He said HOPE is really important to do and it actually is! Jono Naylor said he only got to be mayor because he used HOPE and that HOPE can go down on you sometimes but it’s good to try. Then suddenly without me noticing everyone thumped their feet and the seventeen year old sea life saver came in, it was Riley Hathaway there were billions of screams.

Riley Hathaway started talking about how she became to love sealife. This is a big story you might not cope with but when Riley was little she was scared of seaweed, crabs and definitely sharks the worst. But when she was about 14 she went out and faced her biggest fear of sharks! She went in the middle of Tonga and New Zealand on boat and she was the only girl onboard and she dived in with twelve sharks and in about ten minutes she knew that they were doing their thing so they wouldn’t even hurt her. But one day when she was saving a turtle it died from a seagull, she talked about picking up one piece of plastic per day so the ocean isn’t full of rubbish. Fast fact we have one of her books in our library. Then finally she left and we could have lunch, 40 minutes later…….. “everyone get to your seats and thump your feet for Vince Harder.”

Vince Harder spoke about why he chose to sing and how he got where he is now. He said to drown out negativity with positivity. He also said to keep trying so you can go big and have a nice time when your singing. He sang some of his songs and one was copied by another singer/artist we all did his moves they were all fun and William Waiirua sang in one of them too, he sang two or three songs to the audience then finished and went off.

Suddenly the people who made NYLD came out their names were James Beck and Te Waka McLeod they said us kids have to learn to be leaders while we are young and to stand up to people and have confidence.

Suddenly when it all finished we all signed stuff and left to go on a journey to the bus, we walked  on the footpath and sprant into the bus, brim brim bye bye NYLD.

I thought the day was amazing because we got to hear awesome speakers who were very nice and are good speakers. I did not think NYLD would be this AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!

By William Revell

National Young Leaders Day

On Monday Rosie, William and I got a day off school and got to go to NYLD which is NATIONAL YOUNG LEADERS DAY. We got off the bus and walked up to this big green building it was huge! we were there for a little bit because Mangaweka was coming and they were going to sit with us. When we got in side we had red bands on our right hands. We had to have the bands to get in. When we got in there were a lot of people and when I say a lot I mean 2500 people.That’s a lot of people there also was a dance cam and when the cam went on a group of people they went CRAZY they were jumping up and down they were doing fortnite dances and they did random dances and a whole lot of things. After the crazy stuff there were two people that came up on the stage they were the hosts. There was a boy called Christian and a girl called Liz they were talking about who we will be listening too. After all that the first speaker came up on stage her name was Kelly Wilson I knew who she was because Bree is crazy about her and all the Wilson people. I was expecting her to talk about boring horses but she didn’t talk about horses that much she was actually one of my favourite speakers she was talking about how they were really poor and lived in cow sheds and tents. When she was older she made a list of 100 things she wanted to do to challenge herself like jumping out of a plane at 12000 ft. Thats one of my fears. She did a lot of other scary things. After she finished crowd went wild that was amazing! I thought. Then the hosts came back up and said stuff like “that was amazing” and “that was so cool” which was 100% right. The next speaker was Lisa Tamati she was a really good runner she ran in the mountains and she ran Death Valley and it’s really, really,really HOT plus there are really big hills you go over. And she told us a story about her life it was really cool and showed us that we can do most things if you put your mind to it. She was a really good speaker.

Next it was a man called Jono Naylor he was the Mayor of Palmerston north and he talked about hope and humility and stuff like that it was cool. Next it was someone called Riley Hathaway she talked about the sea and plastic bags and how fish and other things think its food and die. She said if everyone in New Zealand picked up one piece of plastic a day that would be 4 million pieces of plastic a day that would be amazing. I hope that will happen someday. She was a really cool speaker. After it was lunch and everyone was doing something it was a little boring. Next it was a guy called Vince Harder he was a singer he has quite a lot of songs and he sings other peoples songs too. He was really good at singing.

Next  it was two people called James Beck and Te Waka McLeod and they were the organisers of NYLD.

Next Vince Harder came back. He told us a story about a boy who was dieing in another country and they raised money from the band and gave it to the boy and saved his life that was really cool. After that the singer Vince Harder started singing everyone went crazy and most people went up to the stage and started to dance everyone went mad it was like a concert.

After that everyone stopped going crazy and the hosts started saying stuff for a goodbye and we left and we started to go home.I thought it was a really cool day and very inspirational.

By Max Collier