Kerry Girling - Youth Motivational Speaker
Better Youth, Better World
Positive Lifestyle Choices
Relating to Students Through Youthful Appeal…
It’s No Wonder He’s Number One!
Life In The City
Kerry Girling had the privilege to write in a local news column, Life in the City. He has written various articles on Positive Lifestyle Choices. Please read the articles below.
Man on a mission
Motivational youth speaker, Hollywood good looks and aspiring actor – you’d think life has always been easy for twenty-three-year old Kerry Girling of Saskatoon. But there was a time he says when he didn’t even have the confidence to stand up in front of his high school class at Walter Murray Collegiate.
Drinking and driving
“I’ll be fine, I’ve only had a couple,” said the captain of the football team, after drinking a full case of beer at the year-end wind up party. As he stumbled to the car and party goers looked on, his best friend turned to them and announced, “Geoff’s the captain of the football team – he knows what he is doing.” Little did he know but later that night Geoff would have a horrific accident and the eight friends who watched him drive away drunk would be huddled outside a hospital emergency room praying that Geoff’s life be spared.
Bullying in schools
One of the single most talked about subjects and the biggest problem in the school system today is bullying. I never realized the full extent to which physical and verbal abuse goes on in schools until I started speaking to high school students about peer pressure and bullying.
I feel that the best way to approach the subject of bullying during each presentation I make is to interact with teens at a personal level. I prefer to give the students a chance to participate along with their peers and get involved with each other, rather than just giving them “the facts.”
Debt Recovery
After giving a talk about debt at a local high school in Ontario recently, a teacher approached me. She was the mother of a young man, one of a large number of teens I’d just spoken with. She had expressed concern that her eighteen-year old was spiraling out of control.
Drug abuse
It was a very quiet afternoon during a motivational presentation in a larger, local high school, as I talked to the students about the dangers of abusing their bodies with drugs and alcohol. It had really hit home with the students and teachers as I continued to tell a few stories of my childhood and dealing with an older brother that was abusing himself with heavy drug use. “It’s very difficult to see someone from my own family hurting himself, without a care in the world”.
Health and fitness
What do the terms ‘Health and fitness’ mean to you? Do they mean occasionally going outside and throwing the ball around, maybe eating an apple or orange if you see one in the fridge or perhaps putting on your new roller blades, the ones you haven’t touched for two years for a quick trip to the store for a bag of chips and a pop?
Helping encourage others
What would this world be like if we all helped and encourage each other everyday? Would we live in peace and harmony, free to follow our dreams, safe from the ravages of hatred, greed, drugs and crime? Whimsical conjecture? Perhaps, but some of the questions I put to students during my motivational presentations I gave at high schools across North America.
Self-confidence
It’s unfortunate to see how many teenagers have self-confidence issues. These days it seems as though high school students need to keep up with all of the latest trends in fashion to fit in and maintain a cool perspective. However many students or even parents cannot afford that expense.
Setting goals
“What is the point in writing my goals?” a tenth grade student at one of the local high schools had asked me. My response was right to the point.
