Diary of a Gen Z student: Leaving Cert is just one of the ways of getting to where you want to go

If you are receiving your Leaving Cert results, I thank you for your service. My mother was delighted with the drying weather during maths paper 2. 

You sweated through Newton’s Laws, titrations, Shakespeare and ‘An Triail’, as if the six years of secondary school hadn’t been torture enough. Congratulations!

You may think you can wash your hands of it all, but you’ve got years of Leaving Cert related nightmares ahead of you. That’s part of the terms and conditions of Irish adulthood. 

Your parents signed the contract on your behalf, just before your first cup of Barry’s tea. Just last week, I showed up to my maths exam without a calculator and woke up in a cold sweat – something for you to look forward to.

I got my Leaving Cert results two years ago. Funnily enough, it was a bit of an anti-climax. Results were supposed to be released at 10am. 

At 9.30am, I was ironing a shirt, just getting ready for the day. I decided to check if results had been released early, and they had. 

So I was just on my own in my living room, holding an iron, and wondering what I was supposed to be feeling. 

My mother had covid at the time, so I shouted my results into her bedroom, as she cursed not being able to go out for a celebratory breakfast.

I was part of the first cohort of students to sit a regular Leaving Cert without predicted grades following the pandemic. I wore a mask to school for most of sixth year. 

I got covid just after the mocks and missed two weeks of school. So, it’s fair to say I was looking forward to experiencing a bit of normalcy in college, seeing as my final three years in school had been dictated by covid. 

Deciding what I would be doing in college was another issue. I thought I wanted to study English, but that didn’t sound ‘academic enough’ in my head, so I avoided telling people.

The build up to results was a little overwhelming. Attempting to predict the grades I’d come out with. Terrified that I wouldn’t get into the college course that was at the top of my CAO. 

Then all of a sudden, the grades are written down in front of you. You’re not sure how you’re supposed to react. And you still don’t know yet if you’ll get into the course you’re after.

As I’m writing this, I’m aware of the unease a lot of students are feeling now. Getting results from such a big exam will inevitably bring up a lot of emotions. 

I didn’t really know what to feel when I got my results. Part of me was glad that it was over. But I also wished I had done better in some subjects. 

Then there was the worry about starting college and wondering if I’d even enjoy the course I had been lusting after.

But the biggest lesson I’ve learned since then, is that there’s so many ways of getting where you want to go. 

Seeing all of my friends go off and study medicine, fine art, and sciences, or do post Leaving Cert courses, really opened my eyes to that. 

There’s a back door, side door, and about 75 windows into every career. If tomorrow won't be what you hoped for, you’ll figure it out. 

It’s important to have some perspective; one disappointing run of exams isn’t proof that you’re not capable. 

I know how all-consuming a disappointing grade can be, but a bad grade isn’t the universe’s way of saying you’re less than. Don’t let it turn into that.

The next few days can be nerve racking, as you wait for college offers to come out. But this is a unique time in your life, try to enjoy it a little bit. 

No matter what grades you’ve gotten, finishing the Leaving Cert is an achievement in itself, and you should be proud. Go out and celebrate that. 

Soon the dreams of having to do your English exam in the nude will set in. And that’s how you’ll know you’ve really completed the Leaving Cert.