Hello Summer

Yesterday I finished my final exam ...!!!! After 3 weeks of sitting exams and 2 years of studying for them...they are over - finally over . The feeling of walking out of my final exam with this massive weight lifted off my shoulders is just unbelievable . When that clock came to 4:45pm I was finally free from what has been holding me down for the last 2 years . Let me tell you - Freedom feels so amazing .

 Having the power to wake up in the morning and remember that you don't need to study , that you can relax for a while is just splendid !! That is the feeling I had this morning . I woke unfortunately just after my usual school getting up time and the first thought to enter my head was " okay , whats the next exam to study for " then I remember that there were none , all 11 exams were over ....and I was still alive to tell the tale. It is such a great feeling to finally be able to say "Hello" to summer . Let the summer begin.

I got to celebrate this new found freedom this evening with one of my best friends . Having pretty much the same taste in everything we do , it was pretty easy for us to decide what we should do to celebrate. Eat sweets, popcorn , Chinese food , drink sparkling pink lemonade and watch the Royal Wedding....again !! Having a best friend who is so similar to me in personality is just the best gift I could have ever been given . We can talk about the funniest things, laugh and joke , be ourselves without any interruptions or distractions... To have a friend I can be myself around is a true blessing .... to have such an amazing Best Friend is a blessing .

So tonight I got to make memories, memories I will get to keep forever - that wont be forgotten any time soon  , and for that I am truly thankful. It is SUMMER , I have been waiting so long for it to come and now I plan on making it the best summer I possibly can , full of the laughter of friends and the splendor of freedom.

Aoife Marie Elizabeth ♪ 

Exam Times

It is that time of year right now that every 6th year student has been dreading for 2 years- or if they are anything like me ,has  been dreading it since I was 2 years old. The beginning of June , the beginning of The Leaving Cert , the beginning of the rest of your life....but its not really !

This time of year puts anxiety in people I didn't think even knew the meaning of the word. People pacing up and down corridors with sheets in hand. People sitting on floors and tables, even in corners to try and get that last little piece of information in before the attendant asks that everyone enter the exam center. You can hear that gasp and sigh as we pack away those sheets into our school bags and pile into that room as if we were never to come out of that room again - but we will !

It is incredible the power these exams hold over all of us .  They have made the strongest people I know cry, they have made me cry. They have made teenagers loose sleep worrying , but also loose sleep studying . All nighters are being pulled to cram a 2 year course into a couple of hours. Red bull is being consumed like it was brain juice , but yet even the smell of the stuff is enough to make me feel a little queasy . Borocca and coke are also what would seem vital elements in the mixture of  what is needed to keep 16-17-18 year old awake at this exam time.

I have seen girls who normal would not walk out of the house unless they looked like they could be going to the oscars ( make-up and such ) come into school without a trace of the stuff... nothing to cover the dark circles beginning to form under eyes due to sleep deprivation . Hair tied up in a pony tail and fringe clipped back because it is the easiest option . I am speaking on behalf of myself as well as others here.
I have seen the boys arrive in with their tracksuits , also showing the tell tale signs of no sleep the night before. Boys I have never seen with a book in there hand now staring at it intensively hoping something will go in , as if osmosis could magically work with words and books.

I have also notice that faith has become vital to those who want to pass their exams. I cant help think to myself that God must feel very needed this time of year . Candles are being lit, prayers are being said , even pleas are being made to God.  I am of course praying as everyone else is , asking God to help me through all of my exams - saying before all of them  "Lord, help me to remember that nothing can happen to me today that neither you or I can not handle together"  . Because that is exactly true, there is nothing that can happen to me any day that I can not handle as long as God is right there with me.
None of these exams are going to kill any of us - though at time we think they might . We are slowly but surely ticking each one off the list .... 8 down 3 to go .We are getting there - and freedom....oh freedom is so so close !!!!

Aoife Marie Elizabeth ♪

Hope

Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune--without the words, And never stops at all, And sweetest in the gale is heard; And sore must be the storm That could abash the little bird That kept so many warm. I've heard it in the chillest land, And on the strangest sea; Yet, never, in extremity, It asked a crumb of me. - Emily Dickinson