Do you remember collecting your LC results?

2004. had to drive out to the middle of nowhere to get mine. Great feeling to get them over with.

Teaching TEFL at the moment, making good money but has absolutely nothing to do with LC results, they just want a native speaker Applying for college over here and all they want is to make sure I actually finished school!

So in the end it didn't really matter, though I was proud of my A1 in history. And shocked.

Met the lads in town at 9am and strolled up the road toward the school, joking and laughing like we used to doing for the last 3 years before the 1st class. Arrived at the school and we were early but already most of the lads had arrived. People were talking for the sake of talking but everyone was distracted.

Finally doors opened and we queued up, naturally some more eager that others. One lad who is well known for being socially retarded was up first, got his results and went into the nearby classroom and will still in view of everyone else ripped out his results and immediately started screaming "Oh my god I got A's, i got A's", in front of a queue of over 40 anxious lads, some of which knew they were no where near a single A.

He kepts going "Oh my god, I can't believe it", I walked over and casually closed the door reducing his abnoxious yelps to muffles. I got a few nods of appreciation.

Finally it got to me, Principal looked at me, scrolled through the envelopes and held it up, "What were you looking for" he asked
"Id be happy with over 450"
He winked and handed me the paper.

Went down the stairs to the basement, there was one of my mates there in a corner opening his envelope, he looked at me with dead eyes as if to say "fúck off, this is my area"

I went outside to an empty bench, took my phone out and turned on the calculator and opened the letter. All 5Bs, 2Cs. I was moderatly happy with my result and after a few moments of staring at the paper, I walked back up the stairs to the sound of laughing. I went outside and the teachers spoke to us like equals, we joked with some and thanked some others.

I never set foot in that school again!

1999

It was a nice sunny day. I waited out side the school until they opened the doors at 9am with most of my class. I was really pleased with my results. I was a nervous wreck going in to collect them. I'd suffered with insomnia during the whole of 6th year and was honestly expecting to fail everything. I got A's in higher level geography and business. The lowest mark was a D in ordinary biology (I couldn't get my head around that subject no matter how hard I tried). The rest were B's & C's. I did 8 subjects - most were higher level, the ones that were ordinary level were maths, Irish and biology.

Ironically, it was the smartest girl in my class that failed the leaving. She was full of herself. Her parents had taken her to do a I.Q. test and she scored "highly gifted" or something like that. She'd spent the entire 6th year bragging about how she never studied and still got the highest marks in our christmas tests and the mocks anyway. All the teachers favoured her and they must have been marking all her homework & tests easier than the rest of ours. I remember we were all standing around with big smiles on our faces, happy with our marks, and she just burst into tears. She was standing next to me and I peaked over her shoulder and looked at her results. She did higher level in everything and her highest mark was a D in English. The rest were all E's & F's. I was shocked. One of the teachers quickly came up and put an arm around her and took her into the principals office. It just shows it doesn't matter how smart you are, you need to still study!

About 10 years ago. Collected them in the morning and then had ice-cream for breakfast in celebration. Then a bottle of bacardi for lunch. And then after spewing up Bacardi flavoured ice-cream I didn't really feel like having dinner.

2005

The night before was a restless one for me and I walked up the school about an hour before it opened and some others were there already.

Went, got my envelope, promptly ripped it open when I went outside. A couple of Cs and 2 Ds if remember correctly. Delighted with the C3 I got in pass maths as I had to get grinds because the teacher was fcuking useless.

I was a bit disappointed with my result in Honors English where I got a D3, I had gotten a C in the mocks and it was also the only subject where I had stayed in full time for both papers. However, this was the time when both papers were done on the same day so I was knackered by the time I got the poetry section on paper 2.

My best result was in Home Economics, where I got a C1 in Honors.

All in all, I got 330. Not bad but I didn't need it that year as I was doing a PLC course, helped me get the course I wanted the next year but lets just say life has worked out differently since then and being truthful, college wasn't all that great to me - probably because I made the fatal error of commuting to and from college instead of wanting to go further afield.

That night, didn't really do anything special, I was still a bit socially inept and didn't drink either so it closed a lot of options for me. It felt like a bit of a cop out as I felt my efforts haven't being properly rewarded tbh. Kind of kick myself these days over it but I guess that's how people learn and grow.

And one last thing to those who collected their results today, this isn't the end all and be all for everything. Its only one part of the story, there is still a lot more of life to live after this. Enjoy yourselves tonight.

2009 for me, so just 2 years ago.

Results were terrible. My world just came crashing down. Family and friends kept ringing to see how I'd done, it was soul crushing. Luckily I had a couple of teachers who I was friends with who were there to look out for me. Went out and bought shoes for the grad and went out that night anyway.

2 years later I'm in a great college in the States doing the course I've wanted to do my whole life and the LC is just a distant a memory that wound up not being in any way important in my life.

Happy out.

2006. I went to a multi-story car park and opened 'em by myself. I didn't get what I wanted and was absolutely gutted. I remember listening to Fix You, by Coldplay on repeat for a few hours and I've no idea what I did that night.