NEVER-SAY-DIE GIORGIA’S BRIGHT FUTURE

RECEIVING her ATAR was a milestone in a long, tough journey for Giorgia Kendall.

The Geelong High School student suffered a debilitating stroke while lying on the couch at the beginning of year 10 in 2016.

“It’s really scary,” Giorgia said. “I lost complete use of the right side of my body ... I had to relearn how to use (it).

“I couldn’t get out of bed for a week.”

Giorgia needed to relearn basic skills including walking and talking.

It took her six months to return to standard walking levels and a week for her speech to return.

The 18-year-old experienced complications including a dangerously low heart rate.

“That’s what almost killed me,” she said.

Giorgia still has difficulty with some motor skills, including gripping items, and still struggles with fatigue.

Halfway through 2016, she moved from Melbourne to Geelong and started at Geelong High School and had to acclimatise to a new environment and peers.

The stroke had ongoing effects throughout the rest of Giorgia’s schooling.

“It affected me heaps, I was exhausted every day. It was just so much mental stress,” she said.

“I think it’s really easy to not realise how hard it is having everything happen to me.

“That’s what made it tough ... being young, it’s hard (to understand why things like that happen).”

After all she’s been through, Giorgia was “pretty happy” to receive her ATAR of 70 yesterday.

She hopes to go to Monash to study earth science, and could study arts and then transfer to her preferred course if she’s not immediately accepted.

“I think I might have just missed the cut-off but I might just make it,” she said.

Giorgia said Geelong High School was “super accommodating” and “really supportive”.