Year 9 Stands Tall
On the Thursday 4 June, the whole of the MLC School Year 9 cohort had the privilege of attending the Stand Tall event in the ICC. Stand Tall is the No.1 and LARGEST youth wellbeing in Australia. It is held all around the country in cities like Canberra, Liverpool and most importantly, our home city Sydney!
Stand Tall was a day filled with motivational speakers, amazing performances by dance companies from around Australia, the Stand Tall band and a dance competition in which MLC School’s very own Ava Meng (Year 9) brought home the win! I got to see the spirit of the MLC School girls come through to support each other and show other schools what the pink and blue spirit looks like.
Attending Stand Tall was such a fulfilling experience; it was great to be able to form new relationships with people through the different speakers and to see how we were all in this journey of learning to stand tall, be brave, take new chances and to speak out, together.
Across the day, all 6000 students and 80 different schools were laughing, crying and bonding over the inspirational stories of how Jessica Watson achieved her goal of breaking a world record of sailing around the world as a teenage girl or how Michael Crossland beat the odds and faced challenge after challenge to become the successful speaker he is today. We also got to meet three other speakers who were unlike any other: Duku Fore, Emma Carey and James Chappo. Their stories could not have been any more different from each other, but they had all united with the motivation of guiding and teaching us that we are the writers of our story.
My highlight of the day was, without doubt, watching thousands of phone flashlights light up the room as everyone swayed to the performance of the song A Million Dreams, a true and raw moment of unity where nothing else mattered but the goal of reaching for our dreams. One last unforgettable moment was the standing ovation we gave to the final speaker, Michael Crossland, a moment of recognition for his impact on the world.
This amazing opportunity wouldn’t have been possible without all the organisers at Stand Tall and MLC School, as well as the staff members at MLC School who accompanied us on the day. Thank you for making sure all the girls had fun and got to attend!
– Hana Lee (Year 9)
Stand Tall was one of the most moving and impactful, yet entertaining events I’ve ever been to. With 6,000 other students from schools around NSW, the whole theatre had a surreal atmosphere. The speakers gave insightful and deeply motivational talks about their personal experiences, leaving all of us teary-eyed and emerging with newfound perspectives on life. All of these speeches were broken up by enthralling entertainment courtesy of a talented band and performers from across Sydney. Overall I can firmly say that my friends and I had a both fruitful and enjoyable time at the Stand Tall event!
– Chelsea Keomanivong (Year 9)
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