Student diary: ‘I promised I would never cry over the Leaving Cert’

I consider myself quite an anxious person. I know myself. But, at the start of fifth year, I made myself a promise: I would never cry over the Leaving Cert.

So, back then, I sat down and carefully planned my time.

And, now that most of my exams are over — just art history and Spanish left — I am so pleased that I kept that promise to myself. And a little bit proud too.

Irish and English are my favourite subjects, and I definitely prefer languages to maths and science. I picked Spanish because, at the time, I wasn’t fully sure what I wanted to do and, of course, sometimes a third language is an entry requirement for colleges — I didn’t want to close any doors on myself.

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Spanish also offers opportunities for travel, and while Spain or South America sounds great, I’d honestly even be delighted to go to Cork at the moment. Take me anywhere!

As an art history student, Florence would be amazing, as I’d get to see all the paintings I’ve studied for the last few years. There had been a plan for a school trip to Florence but Covid cancelled it, so it was really unlucky timing.

The summer is slowly starting to unfold in front of me, and I’m catching glimpses of a time when I will be able to chill out and take a big, deep breath after the intensity of the last few years. I’m hoping, too, that I will have a part-time job to help me save up some money for college in advance of the results.

We still haven’t been told when those results will come, which seems quite unfair.

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We have been bound by deadlines for mocks, for the CAO, for SUSI grants, and we’ve met all of them, but the Department of Education hasn’t been able to tell us when the results will be out.

It’s a huge source of frustration: if we are working, we want to make sure that we have taken the morning off so we can get our results; if we’re away on a post-Leaving Cert holiday or with family, we want to make sure we are back in the country.

Honestly, even at this point, a rough deadline would be fine.

Leah Quigg is a Leaving Cert student at Creagh College, Gorey, Co Wexford