The Small Business Column: Leaving Cert is no reason to panic

The weather is improving and there are so many things to see and do this summer. That means it must be Leaving Cert time and Kehlan Kirwan looks at why there is no need to panic.   

This year 119,000 students are taking state exams; 58,865 students will sit the Leaving Cert exam.

That’s a whole load of students, with a whole load of panic. However, the panic seems more centred on letting down parents or looking stupid among their peers rather than the end-of-life prospects as they know it.

Educational institutions and the attendance at them seem more highly valued than the learning process itself. Why we demand so much of so few always seems negligent to me. Asking an 18-year-old what they want to do for the rest of their life is a question that they cannot possibly answer with great conviction.

What they think, compared with realities, are two very different things. We are encouraging them to run in a ratrace, not a human race.

I say this because I know what it feels like to be in that race. The panic and the fear that your life is sunk. I didn’t do well in the Leaving Cert at all, mostly because I didn’t enjoy school. However, creative writing and English were my saving grace, I always made time for that. It led me to this point, writing for a national newspaper. I arrived here because I moved from point A to point B via points X, Y and Z.

That journey has provided me with an unbridled passion for what I do. I love to write, I love to film, I love to meet people and hear their story. I appreciate it now as I took the long way round, the road less taken.

The Leaving Cert is only the beginning of a life’s journey, it cannot be considered anything but that.

There is a solution to every problem and this is no different. If a young student doesn’t get the points to get in to somewhere, what then? Then they move to plan B and then to C and then to D, and so on. University is an advantage to have, it is a great learning curve in education and in life. However, it is not essential for a happy life. Lots of options are out there for anybody who is willing to go on a journey.

My journey took me through different countries. I lived in small towns and major cities. I have had days where I was on big emotional highs and days where I felt like a job was gnawing away at my soul. However, I wouldn’t change anything, not one bit of it. I learned the value of what I wanted to do, I learned that I had value.

It can be very easy to believe that a bad Leaving Cert means a bad life. However, in the grand scheme of things, it means very little. There is something more to life than rushing off to find a job.

You want to find a career, not a job. Something that fulfils you. Since I came back to Ireland things have been tough, but I have never said to myself I hate what I do. That I just see it as a job.

So, before we burden young people with a feeling of ‘make or break’, let’s ask them what they actually want from life itself. If we tell them it is okay to take the road less travelled, then that can make all the difference.