And all of a sudden, it was May.

I’m sorry for my big break in posting there, I was tremendously busy these past few weeks with orals and practicals and history projects and getting mildly obsessed with the new Doctor Who and…wait, where was I? Oh yes.

Orals went well, I think. My year had heard some horror stories from the repeats – their French examiner was pregnant, hormonal and had some sort of personal vendetta against every French student in the school. So when a tiny, wispy haired little pink marshmallow of a woman walked in to the library to give us the “Don’t be worried! Yeer GRAND” talk the whole year breathed a collective sigh of relief. She lived up to her nice little-old-lady image, thank God – she handled my “Colin Firth!” reaction when she asked if I’d seen the Pride and Prejudice film quite beautifully.
Irish was better, which was bothersome considering I prefer French. Even so, I got lost a little and didn’t articulate myself to the best of my ability (“Ahm, deanann an, umm…”) but I was more composed and together than in French.
Practicals were fine although my voice was a little wrecked by the time I got to my 6th song and I let out a few horrible squeaks, much to my distress. I agonised over those squeaks, my gappy Irish and my mumbled French for a couple of days, running through every second I could remember both in my own head and to anyone around who would listen, until I had to be reminded that the orals and practicals are OVER, FINITO. YAY!

Last Thursday saw me handing up dear old Harvey Milk for the last time and finally finishing the harrowing ordeal that is writing the Extended Essay. Now that was a relief. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that I’d be able to write a 2,000 word essay, let alone the required 1,500, yet I managed to shoot over and above what was needed and paid for it dearly in editing. Editing isn’t fun, especially when you think everything is necessary. Eventually I got the thing down to about 1540 words, still over the target but it’ll have to do. One piece of advice I will give any 5th year History student out there: Please choose something you are interested in and want to learn about for the RSR, or you’ll just drive yourself absolutely nuts. Take it from me – I went half-crazy and I actually liked, nay, loved my project.

So that just about brings you up to speed on what’s going on chez Valerie at the moment. I have my Art (Craftwork, life-drawing etc.) next week. I’m playing it safe and doing a poster, considering my modelling went horribly in the mock. At least I’ll leave the art room with something that looks like a finished product, as opposed to a damp grey lump of clay that you have to mind like a little baby in case anyone touches it and it’s trunk/arm/head gets squashed or falls off. (Clearly, I hate clay.) I haven’t done much prep work for it yet, so that’s next on my long long to do list.

Sigh. I can’t believe it’s May. I keep saying it, but I hate how fast this year has gone. I don’t feel the slightest bit ready. When I think of the Leaving Cert as a whole, I start freaking out, yet when I think about it in terms of separate subjects it doesn’t seem so scary. I guess we all just have to keep doing that, taking it one day at a time, subject by subject. We’re GRAND. 🙂

Someone should write a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Leaving Cert. They’d make a killing.

Valerie

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