The Final Countdown.

For thousands of Leaving Cert Students all across the country, school is officially finished. Forever.

Copious amounts of alcohol have been consumed, shirts signed, teachers thanked, pranks eloquently executed. All that’s left now is the final hurdle- these damn Summer Exams. This is it. The Leaving Cert’s here. Well, almost.

After six painful years of secondary school- Five in my regular old school and this detestable repeat year, I can’t get it into my head that it’s all over.
This time last year I was as delighted as was imaginable that I’d completed my secondary school education, but now I just can’t grasp that it’s actually all over. Again.

Officially, I finished school last Tuesday. Grad night was pretty good fun, in a drunken, falling all over the place, forgetting my own name kind of way, but I haven’t quite had enough. School can’t be over- it was only September like… yesterday.

A week after graduating, I’m still KIND OF attending school. I went in today, for example, and wormed my way into FOUR Biology classes. Does anyone dare to challenge me on Genetics? I know it all and I’m not afraid to shout definitions at anyone who so much as mentions the topic.

Maths is still well worth going to as well, and not just because I’m genuinely in love with the teacher. Revision rocks, everyone. Revision rocks.
Tomorrow, I plan on joining some random English classes or something, whichever one is revising Macbeth or the detestable Lizzy Bishop.

I can’t do a tap on my own accord in any case (20 minutes of study over the weekend is to be juxtaposed with hours spent drinking whiskey in a field, whittling away time on Facebook, Bebo, Boards.ie and anywhere else that would have me) so continuing the school-going routine’s my only real choice. That and hijacking the Library which, as I previously mentioned, has become my home away from home.

I’m collecting up my bits and pieces for the exams- The perfect pens, a vast array of higlighters, brightly coloured pencils to keep me cheerful and other bits of assorted stationary, gallons of Lucozade Alert, mountains of Cadbury’s “Fruit and Nut” bars, Glucose barley sweets, spare batteries for my calculator- The basics. It’s nearly over, and even though those 600 points I’d have liked are almost certainly well out of my reach, I’m relatively confident I’ll blow my 550 points from last year right out of the water.

BRING IT ON.

All in all, as the Leaving Cert gets ever closer I can’t help but feel a little bit delighted. I’m not so much nervous and worried as I am relieved. The Summer’s almost here and I just CANNOT wait. I won’t be working, I won’t be setting goals, I won’t be making plans. I’ll be dossing, guilt-free. The only thing I’d like to achieve is a much better “Pub-record”. Last Summer, my good friend and I made it to our local pub for 9 days in a row, broken only to attend Oxegen. This year, we’re going to have to manage at least 14. And also, it’d be pretty epic to be waiting outside the doors at opening time once or twice. Nothing trumps daytime alcoholism.

So, in conclusion, we’ve just over a week to go. Reports of diligent students’ endless days of study are getting me down, so although I very much so hope any readers of this here blog are getting on well, I’d also like you all to tell me nothing about it. I’m looking forward to the all-night cramming sessions which, at this stage, are almost inevitable. NYOM.