“People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don’t know when to quit. Most men succeed because they are determined to.” George E. Allen
Twice this week-end, I bumped into people I knew in school last year who have gone on to college. Twice, I heard ”I can’t believe you went back” and all the associated gibberish: ”I wouldn’t do it if they paid me” and the like. It was a simple decision really. I received my results, realised I wasn’t going to get Medicine with 485 and immediately knew I was going to be giving the Leaving Cert another go. This time last year, I grew a bit lenient. I had worked hard up till Christmas, had got good Christmas results, but after the break, things went gradually downhill.
This is the purpose of this post, it’s probably going to be the very definition of short and sweet but hopefully in some way motivating. Sure, we all know the importance of these exams, we know that it’s not the end of the world to do poorly, or have to repeat, but if we had a choice, repeating wouldn’t be what we would want to do. From today, Sunday the 11th of January, to Wednesday the 3rd of June there are one hundred and fourty-three days. That is the equivalent of 12,355,200 seconds, 205,920 minutes or 3432 hours. This shouldn’t freak you out, that’s still a lot of time, but don’t waste it. Buckle down, dust off the books that may have yet to be opened, you don’t want to have to go through this whole year again – you’ve probably heard this from teachers, but now you hear it from someone your own age .
Hannibal, not Lecter, but Barca (military commander, Punic Wars – think back to Junior Cert Latin) said on the impossibility of crossing the Alps with elephants “We will either find a way, or make one” – so guys, it’s not impossible, find a way to get through these last few months, you don’t want people stopping you in the street next November, high on college life, asking you what it is that you’re doing these days with your life.
Nice post! Quite the motivator, aren’t you ^_^
I frickin’ HATE that damn “How’s college” going line followed by the absolute pity when people realise I am not, in fact, in college thing.
People repeating for medicine ftw. (Y)
But what Hannibal didn’t realise is that what was on the other side of the alps may not have been worth it. 😛
Seriously though, I might actually do some work now…
Of course crossing the Alps was worth it! Jeesh… 🙂 But don’t you see, he was the commander of an army, and he needed to cross the Alps to get to Rome so he could fight Romans in the Second Punic War after Rome won the First War. So, he totally knew it was worth it!