MY LEAVING CERT:The right choices can save years – but with luck we all find what we want to do eventually, writes SEÁN MUNSANJE
MY OLDER brother was really studious. He did medicine in UCD and I think my parents sort of assumed that I’d be mad into the Leaving Cert as a result. I wasn’t really into studying though. I was more of a drama school at the weekend kind of student. I liked doing lots of extra-curricular activities. School was more of a social outlet for me.
There were a lot of decisions surrounding the Leaving Cert and college that I didn’t think through. Stupidly, I decided to take all three sciences. I think I just thought that my brother had done them so I’d have the books with the relevant bits highlighted. I also assumed that the three sciences were surely interrelated somehow which would mean less study. Of course I was wrong and the sciences didn’t suit me at all.
Biology was okay and parts of physics were fine, but chemistry had me bowled over sideways. I just found it impossible.
I’m a crammer. Before exams I used to lock myself in my room and cram as much information as I could into my head. I found the Leaving Cert quite stressful because I wanted so badly to leave Ennis. You know the way – you’re 17 or 18 and in a small town. I didn’t apply to Limerick because it wasn’t far enough from home and there was no way I was going to repeat.
As my main motivation was getting out, I applied for computer courses, all far away from home. I wish I had put more thought into the course I was choosing but, like I said, there were a lot of things I just didn’t think through. It was the late 1990s and a lot of people were opting to study computer science and the like. I took IT as an extra Leaving Cert subject so I wasn’t applying completely blind, but the course just wasn’t as important to me as getting away was.
In the end, I did okay in the exams – nothing spectacular, 370 points or thereabouts. It was enough for a course in Waterford which was maybe fifth on my list. I was thrilled to get it because it meant I could leave home.
The summer after the Leaving Cert was one of those iconic times. It was a real Dawson's Creekkind of summer. There were the lads from St Flannan's, the boys' school, and the girls from the Coláiste in Ennis. We used to hang out together playing pool in a place called Dillinger's.
People say that you forget your friends from school and that college friends are the ones you make for life. I made great friends in college but loads of my best friends are from that last summer. We meet up in Dublin on occasion and Facebook is great for keeping in touch. It was a really brilliant time.
As soon as you finish the Leaving Cert, nobody ever asks about it again. Of course it’s important, especially if you’re aiming for high points, but often people need to take a breath and just remember that it’s not the be all and end all of everything.
If you can’t decide what to do, take a year out or do something generic that will leave you with options. It’s worth giving it a bit of thought at this stage. If I had thought things through I could have saved myself years, but I suppose if we’re lucky, we find what we want to do eventually!
- Seán Munsanje is a presenter on TV3's Xpose
