Trust me, Trust me…

…I’m a Doctor!

Today has been the much awaited CAO offers day. My lack of nerves in the run up to the actual Leaving Certificate Results was made up for, infinite times, last night as I gritted my teeth and crossed all of my fingers, hoping against hope I’d be offered Medicine today. I’m not a Religious person but, trust me, I was praying to just about anything that the CAO offers would treat me well today.
And treat me well they did!

I never got around to blogging my actual Leaving Cert results last week- the past few days have disappeared off in a blur of sleeping and celebrating. I was pretty delighted when I opened that horrible brown envelope, let me tell you.
I’d warned all of my friends and family in advance that the likelihood was that I’d get lower points this year than last year. I had myself convinced.
I’d totted up my predicted points over and over again, and it always seemed to land somewhere in the 510-525 bracket. I’d made my peace with it, and decided my 550 from last year would do the job.
However, I didn’t *actually* do worse this year! I somehow managed to scrape 565, which I was very pleasantly surprised and happy with!
I counted my points from the following:
Three A1s- Irish, English and Geography.
Two A2s- French and Biology.
One B1- Chemistry.

I was a little upset with Biology, admittedly, as I got an A1 in it last year. Also, Chemistry let me down. I got the same result in it last year, even though I felt this year’s paper went a lot better. I’ll have a look at the scripts and see if they could be brought up, but I don’t mind at all.
Leaving Cert results mean very little to me right now as they’ve been completely overshadowed with my CAO offer.

I, my friends and loyal readers, have accepted course DN002- Medicine in UCD.
I’m overjoyed. Deliriously content. Euphoric.
I can’t quite voice how I feel, because I really don’t think I’ve ever been this happy before. I honestly didn’t think I’d be getting Medicine today, especially not in Dublin!
I missed out on Trinity, my first choice, by a mere 3 points, but I got my second choice in UCD and that’s more than good enough for me.
UCD was, after all, my first choice last year.

I waited up all night, and as soon as the offers appeared on the internet (A cheeky little scanned copy on boards.ie) and I saw that I’d be studying Medicine this year I just began to grin. It’s a feeling like no other, and I’m incredibly delighted.
Had I not been offered Medicine today, I would have accepted Human Health and Disease Science in Trinity, but I would not have been quite as satisfied as I am right now.

As it turned out, had I not repeated at all and just taken a year out, I could’ve gotten exactly the same offers. UCD fell at 720, I was already on 723. This year’s Leaving brought me up to 726. Luckily, I can do nothing but laugh about the whole situation.
The introduction of the HPAT worked out very well for me. Less so for others, of course, but I’d never have gotten UCD if it weren’t for that bad boy aptitude exam. Although, if it weren’t for that bad boy, perhaps i’d have been more motivated.
For all my complaining and whinging throughout the year, things have worked out for me! I’ve had an amazing Summer, and looking back on my year it wasn’t so bad. I met plenty of great friends, saw many new and interesting faces.

This day last year I felt somewhat empty. The idea of repeating hurt. Seeing my friends accepting their offers to go off to every corner of the country and beyond sent pangs of disappointment through my very being. But, just a year on, everything’s after working out.
The year flew by, and I’m glad I waited around to get my dream course instead of jumping into something I wasn’t really happy with.

It’s a strange time of the year for us all- friends and classmates heading in opposite directions. Hopefully, mostly grinning.
To anyone reading my blog, I hope you’re all happy with your chosen paths. And for those of you who’re feeling somewhat upset, look at my story as one of success. In the end of the day, you’ll get what you want. It might take a little longer, it might involve a lot of stress and hardship, but it’ll be worth it in the end.

To anyone going down the repeating route, I wish you the very best of luck. I saw some amazing success stories among my own friends and classmates this year who went back to school, and the general consensus is that it was worth every single minute.

Best of luck everyone, I’m officially out for the very last time!
Thanks for reading all year, it’s been a pleasure.

-Jennie.