As a famous poet once said ladies and gents, we took a left off last laugh lane. Or was it the Arctic Monkeys? Sure what’s the difference! One thing is for definite our days of fun have just been numbered. My name is Tara and I too am…a leaving cert student!! Well it’s safe to say depression has set in, suddenly my school bag feels a lot heavier and it’s not because I have more books, it’s because perhaps like everyone else I’ve got the weight of the world on my shoulders! I’m doing seven subjects for the old L.C :
- English
- Irish
- Maths
- French
- History
- Biology
- Religion
I’m probably the only one out of my year who thinks the speeches or series of short talks which were intended to be threatening speeches, just weren’t scary enough! There were no frightening stories of pass students (fictitious or real) leaving it too late to study, not getting into college, ruining their lives and obviously after a short time, dying as a result. The teachers seemed too tired to intimidate us, instead we got the reassuring talk, which is never good! We got those looks, those extremely annoying looks, almost like a disappointed face ”This year goes by SO fast girls, *annoying face* SO fast *annoying face*. The plan this year must be reverse psychology, ”It’s your life, if you don’t study *other annoying face*, *throws hands up*. I need to be terrified this year, if I’m not I’ll be calm and relaxed and while usually I like to be that way, when it comes to exams I need to be scared because this causes the one thing we lack fellow teenagers, motivation.
Apart from that disappointing excuse for a fear mongering lecture, it appears the recession has finally crept into our lives. Now the talk is that even after we’re finished college, ”Who knows if you’ll get a job in these times? Who knows when things will pick up again?” Right! So there’s no light to the end of this tunnel then? It must be the Dublin port tunnel the leaving certs are in, another success of the recession, sure it was only 752 million over budget! Just when things couldn’t get any more depressing than sixth year we hear this negativity. The aim this year is to keep my head down and ignore this negative talk. The prospect of no jobs after your degree effects me however, as I’m a psychology hopeful. This means everyone is telling me there are no jobs in psychology in Ireland, my whole family, my teachers, even my doctor told me on my last visit to reconsider my choices. That’s another thing too, the leaving cert is the only topic of conversation these days between adults and sixth years. Thus making you feel guilty if you’re enjoying yourself in any way, shape or form.
You go to the shop, ”Oh you’re in sixth year now?”, You’re at the cinema ”Not at home hitting the books?” People are making you feel like you can’t go to the bathroom without a book in your hand! Well if that’s how you make me feel when I enjoy myself, quite frankly I don’t want to! The only solace we can take from this a chairde, is that we’re all in this together. Will we survive the race for points or will we get trampled on or left behind? To quote Al Gore , (On the English paper 1 last year) an old African proverb says ”If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”. We need to go very far, fast! 🙂
Laters leaving certs,
Tara.G
P.S
If you see the wizard of Oz on your travels, tell him I’m missing a life!
I believe these Arctic Monkeys chaps also said something about it being uncertain whether the curtain has shut for good, which I take to mean ‘don’t worry about studying, you can do it tomorrow.’ Inspiring fellows altogether.