January Leaving Cert Diary
Last year missy.ie writer, Sophie Coffey, kept us up to date in the run up to her Leaving Cert exams with her Leaving Cert Diary series…we all know how that turned out now.
This year another missy.ie writer, Sorcha Kennedy, will be documenting her experience in 6th Year. With a lot still going on due to the pandemic and uncertainty over the 2021 exams, it will definitely be an interesting one to follow every month.
Oh boy, what a month January has been!
We are now doing school online for the foreseeable future (as no one seems to be able to give us a concrete date on when we’ll be back).
Last March, when we first began doing online school I genuinely enjoyed it. I loved having the freedom to decide my own schedule around classes and to spend the day in the comfort of my home, but almost a year later the novelty has worn off.
It’s getting harder and harder to sit in the same spot all day, staring at a screen or doing homework. The most difficult thing for me is to find the motivation to do extra study on top of the extra homework teachers are giving.
The monotony of the day makes it hard to find the motivation to do anything if I’m being honest, I feel like I’ve yet to crack the code on how to balance it all.
Feeling Overwhelmed
I’ve been actively trying to distract myself from all the uncertainty and conflict surrounding what is happening with the Leaving Cert.
I find myself getting completely overwhelmed anytime I read any Tweet or Instagram post about it, and I’ve decided it’s better for my own mental health to just completely ignore it.
I’ve come to the conclusion that there is nothing I can do to control the outcome the government chooses and it’s in my best interest to just let it go. However, that is definitely a lot easier said than done, and I occasionally find myself lying awake at night trying to predict the future (but I have yet to access my That’s So Raven powers).
Some Clarity
When it comes to plans for next year, I’ve completed my CAO application but it’s far from done and will definitely be changed a million times before the final deadline in June (because I’m very indecisive).
I was also lucky to receive an unconditional offer from one of my UCAS choices, which was a huge weight off my shoulders as it means that I have at least one definite option for next year no matter what happens with the Leaving Cert.
To any fellow Leaving Cert students (or any Junior Certs) please try and take a break from all talk about the exams, it’s so overwhelming and is not worth the stress.
Catch up on all of Sophie’s Exam Diaries from last year and Sorcha’s 2020/21 series.