who would you prefer to be?

pathway33

WARNING: (as expertly advised by PFM)



"If you're liable to get freaked out over your results by reading a short story, run away now."


















With trembling fingers and knocking knees you gently peel the A4 brown envelope that may contain the rest of your life. You feel inside. Yes you have some sort of a leaving certificate awaiting you. You try to anticipate the grades by gently feeling with your finger hoping they might be in braille. No such luck. Your eyes will be the messenger. You gently pull the 50 milligrammes of shredded timber that feels like a tug-of-war team pulling on your arm. Maybe i'll wait you think but destiny has beaten you to it and your fate is staring you in the face.
OMG you see A1 and B1 and B2 and your worst subject was a C3. Unbelievable. In total 1 A1 2 B1s 2B2s a C1 and a C3. In old money 7 honours in your leaving cert. The tears well in your eyes and you feel a dewdrop on your nose. You try to add in your excitement and come to 500 points. You add again barely believing it and yes it's 500 a total 50 points in excess of your course requirement for last year and 70 in excess of what you were expecting.
The celebrations go on for days. Why wait for 6am monday the 18th - its a certainty. You have the course of your dreams. You've wanted it since you first saw you big sisters CAO handbook in 1999. 9 years you have waited for this moment. The moment of truth.
2am monday the 18th you stumble in from another celebratory party. At this stage everyone knows you have your course. You get a text from your nervous friend who has been in the dumps since wednesday convinced she hasn't a hope of getting her course. 'getting up at 6?'
'why should i?' you think. You crawl into bed thinking of your friend. 'i'd hate to be in her shoes' you think. Only 295 points in the leaving cert and an E in history. Ooooooohhhhhh. I dont know what she's going to do. She says she'll have to repeat and she's dreading it. She hasn't eaten since
wednesday.
The light pierces your eyes as yur sister pulls the curtains. Did you not hear the phone? she says. Amy is going bolistic. She got her first choice on random selection with 295. Her first choice came down 70 points.Ye are going to be in the same college. The thought barely sinks in as you try to consume this unexpected turn of events. You are happy for her yes but you didnt want unexpectedation. You wanted everything to remain the way it was last year. What goes down must go up.
With horror you race to your laptop. Why isn't the internet on? you scream. Every wire seems to have grown overnight as your shaking hands are incapable of sliding anything into a hole. Somebody turn on this fooking internet you scream. Your sister tries to calm you while sliding every connection into its home. What's your CAO number she asks. What? You say. With horror you realise you have no idea where it is. You begin ripping drawers from the presses and hangars from the wardrobe. Here it is says your sister looking under the laptop. With calm and precision your sister enters your details. You can barely look.
You got YZ666 your sister calls out. The code seems unfamiliar. Maybe they changed the code of my first choice you think and then the horror dawns. That was the 10th choice that everyone of your group put down as a dare, in that hole of a town with 1 bus a day going 1 way. Wheres my first choice? you scream. You didnt get it says you sister with a smirk on her face. But i got ..... check the points. All your course choices have gone up 100 points. You look at your fantastic leaving cert framed on the wall. What use is it now?


Who would you prefer to be. You or your friend. you decide.

Sabre0001

Friend obviously...It's what "you"/they wanted. LC counts for nothing really after all is said and done. But at the time of course it is THE most important thing.

Bajingo

That is fantastically written horrific story.As long as I got my course I suppose I wouldnt care about points so i'd rather be the friend. Plus the main chap in your story sounds like a pr1ck(hope it isnt based on anyone).

I pray that doesnt happen to me.

philologos

I don't see the point of posting this here, what is the point of it other than to scare people? Bit distasteful? It's too late to change your CAO choices now anyway.

spurious

There's always another way of getting the course/qualification you want.

The Walsho

I'd like to be the friend Amy, as I would have my college course and also, presumably, a pair of breasts, which would be just lovely.

Jay P

Someone's going to get an a in English I think...

The friend for sure. He/she would have to repeat. Me(?), I would be mentally retarded not to put down a course I wanted.

TheScript

u durty thing walsho, but i have to agree wit ya man!

Brooke01

What time does the school open at ….?? When can we collect our results !!

PurpleFistMixer

Obviously the friend. Doing well in your LC means getting the course you want. Once you have that, how many points you got is just for self-satisfaction/pride, etc.

titan18

Can I be both?The guy who gets good points and the one who gets teh course.

You shouldnt have put up that story though.You're after freaking me out anyway especially considering that I should have done my LC last year

1huge1

The Walsho wrote: »

I'd like to be the friend Amy, as I would have my college course and also, presumably, a pair of breasts, which would be just lovely.

Nicely put

I don't care what I get in anything as long as I get the course like.

phenomenon

Too much time on ur hands @ Pathway33?
Killing the time until the results are out, yeah?

Peleus

why was the post deleted? i wanna read that story!

JSK 252

Peleus wrote: »

why was the post deleted? i wanna read that story!

SAME!

1huge1

Reason: too horrific? I thought it was a good read.

pathway33

1huge1 wrote: »

Reason: too horrific? I thought it was a good read.

yes o huge one but we must be sensitive to the needs of the lesser mortals who are not as strong as you. Personally i thought there was a positive message that if things go pear-shaped on wednesday then dont fret because it could all turn around by monday. My reason 'too horrific' was simply mirroring the thoughts of a not unsizeable population who read it. For any distress i caused i apologise.

pathway33

phenomenon wrote: »

Too much time on ur hands @ Pathway33?
Killing the time until the results are out, yeah?

too right but more than that time is killing me. i can't believe i still have to wait another 9 days 15 hours and 22 minutes

pathway33

9:15:23 :mad:

PurpleFistMixer

The peoples can decide for themselves if they want to read it or not. You shouldn't worry about terrifying them so long as you give appropriate warning beforehand. Up to you, anyway.

pathway33

PurpleFistMixer wrote: »

The peoples can decide for themselves if they want to read it or not. You shouldn't worry about terrifying them so long as you give appropriate warning beforehand. Up to you, anyway.

surely the warning may have the same impact as the story. what am i to say in the warning? that if you read further than the next line and happen to be awaiting leaving and cao results then this story may or may not scare the living daylights out of you even though its not intended to

PurpleFistMixer

"If you're liable to get freaked out over your results by reading a short story, run away now." Or something to that effect. Up to you like, but I'm not for censoring stuff if you think it might offend or scare someone.

Piste

I really anted t see what that story was from all the comments...then I rememered I can see edited stuff- yay! I'd totally prefer to be the friend of course, 500 points is useless if you can't get into a course you want.

Bajingo

pathway33 wrote: »

yes o huge one but we must be sensitive to the needs of the lesser mortals who are not as strong as you. Personally i thought there was a positive message that if things go pear-shaped on wednesday then dont fret because it could all turn around by monday. My reason 'too horrific' was simply mirroring the thoughts of a not unsizeable population who read it. For any distress i caused i apologise.

I may have called your story horrific but now that I think of it it does offer those that get lower points a glimmer of hope I say repost it with a warning.

Piste

Pathway33 if you like I can restore your post to its former glory.

Diarmsquid

Good story.

I wouldn't write off the YZ666 course tho.
It would be an adventure. A fun exciting adventure.

Unless it was like... Carlow.:rolleyes:

pathway33

Piste wrote: »

Pathway33 if you like I can restore your post to its former glory.

i have reposted with appropriate warning. I suspect you may have missed this development. To restore my post to its former glory without warning would surely be insanity. Would you swim without armbands ......and a rubber ring? :eek: I know i wouldn't

Piste

I tried that once, almost drowned

Peleus

I'd be the other girl. with 500 points you'd have to take a year out and get the course the next year. being the other girl would be good cos then you'd get your course and you wouldnt be with a load of people younger than you in college. I dont see why that was censored. wasnt too scary. it's not like that could ever happen...





...or could it???

K4t

Why are people getting worked up over a hypothetical situation? :rolleyes:

Wow, the waiting must really be getting to you guys!

I'd be happy in both situations.

1huge1

K4t wrote: »

Why are people getting worked up over a hypothetical situation? :rolleyes:

Wow, the waiting must really be getting to you guys!

I'd be happy in both situations.

Trying to pass the time I suppose.

philologos

pathway33 wrote: »

too right but more than that time is killing me. i can't believe i still have to wait another 9 days 15 hours and 22 minutes

Surely by the points on the 13th you should be able to make a fairly accurate estimate on whether or not you got in?

Jay P

Wait. I completely misread it the first time around. I didn't think the friend got the course, but on re-reading I would like to reiterate my wish to be the friend. As long as I got the course, my points total wouldn't bother me in the slightest to be honest.

pathway33

Jakkass wrote: »

Surely by the points on the 13th you should be able to make a fairly accurate estimate on whether or not you got in?

don't want to count my chickens.....fairly never won a race

florencexxx

Deffo the friend. =] Don't give a **** about my results, tbh, I just want my course! I mean no one cares what you got in the LC once you go to college. It's the course that matters.

=[
Having said all that I'm sure I won't get my no1.

andrew

True story:*

Shaking like Mohammad Ali, you wait anxiously as one by one your classmates are called into your principal's office. After a pants-wettingly agonising 15 minute wait it's finally your turn. You shuffle in, resigned to the fact that the results in that manilla envelope can and will not change. You sit down, holding out your shaking hand in the hope that you can just get the envelope and leave. Your principal however, has other ideas. You watch in horror as he begins to open the elvelope, his face falling as his eyes scan your results. Oh no. 'Ohh, not sure that what you wanted' he says,grimacing as he hands you your results. You scan the page, hoping that perhaps maybe he's just having some sort of sick laugh at your expense. 350 points. You needed 400. Your dreams, shattered in an instant.


*True in that that is actually what my principal did to some guy one year. I'm pissed, i just wanted to get the envelope and leave. Made the rest up because work is so, so, soooo boring.

turgon

pathway33 wrote: »

Who would you prefer to be. You or your friend. you decide.

Me. Cas I have nicer clothes. TBH I wasnt bothered reading that whole passage. Far to long for the Leaving Cert forum!!

anonymousman

What is wrong wit you people? this is the funniest story I ever read especially the big sister part cos I remember seeing courses that I thought were cool when my sister was doing her leaving and I couldn't stop laughing at the YZ600. :pac::D