Oh no, not again! Traumatised by Leaving Cert Hype- Honestly!

OK, now maybe it is just me, but I was just wondering - have any of the boardsie's been traumatised by the Leaving Cert Results coverage?

I sat my Leaving a few years ago, but the memories of Leaving Cert Result day, and the days that followed, are still fresh in my mind, no matter how hard I try to repress them.

My results where not terrible, but I certainly I didn't do as well as I had hoped.
I can remember going to collect my results, watching several of my class mates jumping for joy, and just point blank refusing to Even take a peek at my own.

As I walked away from the school, results firmly in hand, still unopened, I encountered a journalist from a national newspaper.
He stopped my friends and I and asked how we had done.
My friends gave responses along the lines of, "ah yeah, I got what I needed, I am happy enough", and the one's who did particularly well gave that little bit extra information, saying "Oh I got four A1's, two B1's, and a B2 - UCD here I come" etc.
I kinda stood to the edge of the circle, hoping the journalist wouldn't notice me, but to no avail.
He realised I had been fairly quite throughout and asked me if I was happy with my results.
I told him I was waiting until I got home to open them, and no sooner had the words left my mouth but I was surrounded my him, his photographer and all my friends, telling me to open them right there and then.

Eventually, I bowed to the peer pressure and opened the envelope - I took one look at my results and thought I was going to cry, in front of the journalist, the photographer, my friends, and any member of the general public who happened to be in the vicinity.
It was horrible, and incredibly awkward for everyone involved.

When I got home, I showed my mam my results, she was not best pleased but didn't say much.
Then, later that evening the real traumatising stuff started (I bet you thought the journalist bit was the traumatising bit, or the not doing as well as I would have hoped bit was the tramatising bit - oh no!)

The evening papers hit the shelves - complete with front page headlines such as "Leaving Cert results improve by 5million %", and "standards improve across the board".I remember a story about a girl who had actually sat some of her exams from a hospital ward, and managed to get four A1's, and another story about a girl who had actually just had a baby the day before the Leaving Cert began, and had managed to get 400points.

I wanted to rip every single newspaper up, I wanted to burn down the distributors.

Every time my auld one picked up a paper she'd say something like, "there is a young lad here from wicklow, no arms or legs, he got 600points in his leaving, and there you are, 2 arms, 2 legs, and a leaving cert I wouldn't wipe me arse with" or "Did you see that homeless girl from Limerick, a junkie she is, and a single mother, only got one eye, and her fathers a serial Killer, she is after getting 500points in her leaving cert, and here is my fuppin eejet, lovely home, good parents, everything she could ever want, and a monkey could have got a better leaving".I was actually waiting for the headline that would read "Spider Monkey walks away with 600 points in Leaving Cert, puts Mrs Doyle to shame!"


I honestly still get that sick feeling every year when the Leaving Cert results come out - even though my younger brother and sister have actually sat their exams since, and I did better then both of them - I reckon I was actually traumatised by the whole thing :eek:


So anyhow, the question I was trying to ask, before I got so long winded (I blame the fact that I have traumatised) is - Have you lot been affected by the Media Coverage of the Leaving Cert Results? Or are you one of the lucky ones, who walked away with a bizillion points?




EDIT - Just want to add, I have actually got my degree now, I just linked from PLC, so to agree with below poster, the Leaving Cert is not as important as the hype would have you believe - but it was still traumatising none the less