MIND MOVES:The Leaving Cert is a milestone - not the destination, but a new beginning, writes Terry Lynch
MID-AUGUST will be a hectic, exciting and stressful time for more than 50,000 mostly young people and their families. On August 13th, this year's Leaving Certificate students will receive their results.
The landscape of the next phase of their lives becomes clearer over the following weeks. There is the initial excitement and trepidation of reading the results, followed by considerable anxiety and speculation regarding which course they will be offered and the points requirements for desired courses.
The separation process from home, friends and the familiar feels more real now. Many will be leaving home, moving away for the first time, often finding themselves embroiled in the annual scramble for college accommodation.
Within a few short weeks, these young people make decisions and choices which significantly change the course and experience of their lives. The stress this creates is understandable. It is easy to get caught up in the frenzy and lose sight of the bigger picture.
The Leaving Cert exams and results should not be unsalvageable, life or death events of monumental significance. Yet tragically, most years, one or more young people will end their lives around the time of the exams or the publication of results.
Young people benefit by emerging well-educated from secondary school. They also need to learn many qualities and skills which are outside the remit of the Leaving Cert exams, learned in the university of life. They include a solid sense of self; effective dealing with the world; social interaction; handling relationships, friendships, sex and sexuality; assertiveness; effectiveness at having their needs met; adaptability, flexibility, persistance and resilience; how to deal effectively with youth culture, including alcohol and drugs; managing themselves and their lives; becoming comfortable with success, failure, rejection, disappointment, change, criticism, uncertainty, loss, the unexpected. None of these are tested, yet their absence makes life far more problematic.
Life is a journey, not a destination. Each apparent destination comes and goes as we pass through life. Each destination quickly becomes a beginning. These young people have their whole lives ahead of them. In their journey, from birth to death, this is but a moment, albeit an important one. As one student who had completed the Leaving Cert 12 months previously said in The Irish Times on May 7th, 2006: "I know it was only last year, but it's really hard to remember. It seems like the distant past. Once it's over, it's over."
Ask people about the Leaving Cert a year or two down the line; they will say it is but a faint memory. Ask how they feel about where they are in their lives in the years after the exams, and the majority will say that they are happy with whatever they are doing, including those who did not do as well as they had hoped.
They have adjusted to whatever situation they found themselves in, taken action, and moved on. This is part of the ongoing process of adjustment we all go through regularly. Like the tens of thousands who have sat the Leaving Cert over the years, this year's troop will come through all this too.
In the months after negotiating the rite of passage into adulthood which the exams represent, many experience a sense of separation from secondary school and a growing conviction that they are able for this next phase. Following the results, each person gradually acclimatises to their choices, creating a new life for themselves. In the process, they come to a state of equilibrium and contentment, gradually settling into their new life.
There is a huge range of options. Third-level colleges have responded well to the need to facilitate people to change courses. With greater access to adult education and the trend towards a more holistic assessment of suitability for courses (such as the new graduate medical school in the University of Limerick), there are ample opportunities to change direction. Add to this the option of repeating the Leaving Cert, and it is clear that there are many options along the way.
To those awaiting their results, well done. Your worth is not determined by your results, but by the fact that you are unique and irreplaceable. To parents and families, be proud of their - and your - journey thus far. Rejoice that your child is alive and healthy, that you are alive to witness this transition. Spare a thought for those who did not make it this far and their loved ones.
Congrats also to the older people who will receive their results. They will celebrate with pride and delight, living proof that new possibilities are always within our reach.
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Dr Terry Lynchis a psychotherapist and a GP in Limerick