Wild Boy

By: Brando Yelanvich
Location: NF 920 YEL
Genre: Messed up lad gets life back on track by going
on an epic adventure!

What happens when you get a person with ADD and Dyslexia- first school is real hard for them, their brain and muscles are working real hard- just not in the way they are boxed and hounded to be in a school environment- it is tough. They have the energy, they have the smarts, they have drive but they don't fit the rigid mould. It is no wonder they ping! School is like a daily visit to the dentist! It is a daily fail, a daily never meeting the expectations, a daily stuffing it up!

Brando pinged, he hit the road of rebellion, booze, drugs and travelling the road of having dreams that could not be attained. This led to him becoming messed up and having skirmishes with the law.
What I love about this guy is his guts and courage to bust out of that mould, he decided not to stay in that place, instead he decided to walk around the coast on New Zealand. ADD/ Dyslexics are visionaries, they dream and do the dream, they are world changers, they rock rattle and roll and I am so thankful for them!  I know- my son is one of them! He too is a lover of the outdoors in NZ and works in this field for his work as an instructor for youth at risk. These two should met!

So this  plucky 20-year-old from Auckland's North Shore, decided he needed to change his life. He needed a mission. He was going to walk around New Zealand.

Brando reached Cape Reinga on 23 August 2014 after a gruelling journey of over 8000 kilometres, traversed almost completely on foot over 600 days – the first time it had ever been done.

It was an outlandish odyssey of physical and mental fortitude. He slept under the stars and lived off the land. He almost drowned on several occasions and experienced near-hypothermia. He gained 20 kilograms. But the transformation ran much deeper, it changed him.

A friend just bowled into the library and said she heard Brando speak she said he was amazing, a real inspiration. It proves if you want too, if you are determined and intentional you can change your life around and there is no better place to do that than in the mighty outdoors! It is a great story written by a courageous and gusty young man who is gifted with a combo of abilities called ADD/Dyslexia and he will rock and roll his world. You Go!!