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I sat up against the radiator in my kitchen feeling completely lost.
It was January 2013. I was in the middle of my repeat year and the CAO deadline was fast approaching.
Yet again, I had no clue what I wanted to do. My mother was at the kitchen table.
“Do you have any idea what you want to do?” I remember she asked.
“I have absolutely no clue. Tell me what I should do,” I responded, almost in desperation at this point.
"Why don’t you look at Ag Science in UCD?" she said.
As they say, the rest is history.
Readers can trust me when I say that I am qualified enough to give advice on the Leaving Cert. I have made enough mistakes in my years in the senior cycle of secondary school to justify being able to give valid advice on what is a delicate time in one’s adolescence.
For many, it may come as a surprise to find out that I repeated both fifth year and my Leaving Cert. During this four-year cycle, I didn’t make things easy on myself and both were filled with their fair share of drama.
In my first Leaving Cert in 2012, I took up honours business in the March before my exams because at the eleventh hour I realised I needed a sixth honour.
I did this subject myself with a revision book. Luckily I got a B2, but at the expense of other subjects, which suffered.
In my second Leaving Cert, I changed school, dropped five subjects, took up three new subjects to try and complete in one year, two of which I studied out of a revision book myself.
Talk about hardship.
Making the decision to repeat
But let’s backtrack for a second.
I had made up my mind to repeat fifth year fairly early in my first stint.
Come October, I knew I should have done transition year.
The decision was not taken lightly but I knew it was what I wanted to do.
Repeating Leaving Cert, however, wasn’t exactly a decision I wanted to make. I had studied hard but I chose subjects which didn’t suit me and that was my downfall.
I remember meeting a teacher from the local area at the time and told her I was thinking of repeating and taking up different subjects.
She told me in no uncertain way what I was doing was utterly foolish and I was going to have to repeat again. Looking back, she was possibly right.
Don’t make things too hard on yourself in your repeat year. Challenge yourself, but don’t torture yourself.
Looking back, while all seemed normal at the time, my experience of the Leaving Cert and CAO was anything but.
My hope is that imparting my advice may save students from making the same mistakes as I did in the senior cycle.
Listen to your parents
So what is the lesson to be learned from this story you might ask.
Well, there are many. The first and most important is never disregard what your parents have to say. They know you better than you think. Take their advice seriously.
Secondly, repeating is a good option. It may not be your first choice, but getting what you want is. So never rule it out.
Thirdly, never put all your eggs in one basket. In my first Leaving Cert year, I wanted to follow my friends to college.
For that reason, I based my CAO choices solely on a single city so I would be able to live with my secondary school friends.
When the offers came out in mid-August, I was offered a course I didn’t want in a city I was desperate to go to.
You will meet plenty of friends in college. Do not make the same mistake.
Watch your stress levels
Finally, a certain level of stress is good, but don’t let it swallow you up. Take breaks, watch a funny movie or episode, listen to music.
Distracting yourself for those moments can make all the difference to re-focusing you when you need to sit down and do the work.
Give it everything you have but it isn’t the end of the world. Repeating a couple of times taught me this.
SHARING OPTIONS: