It’s been tough, but at Easter I can see the end of the road

AS SPRING emerges, my mood lifts. This happens every year; we get back to school after the February midterm break and all of a sudden I notice how much brighter my room is at quarter to seven in the morning, writes Ellie Menton.

It’s not much warmer, but the sun says hello a little more often than it has done in the last few months.

It feels like a glance of the summer to come, which makes getting through the school day that little bit easier.

Though I didn’t really expect it to, that excitement appeared this year too.

Buried beneath mounds of stress is the teeny tiny reminder that we have almost made it. We’re almost out. A couple more months of working our butts off and then the most stressful year of our lives will be over and done with.

And it has been a tough year. A constant uphill battle, where every day we had to force ourselves to put one foot in front of the other. Being too exhausted to pick up a pen some days, and studying for hours on end without breaking a sweat on others. It’s gotten to the point where my family and friends need to give me three weeks notice if they want to sit down and have a proper conversation with me (even then, a quotes test or deadline might have them pushed back a fortnight or two).

This gruelling year is almost finished. It won’t be long before we’re officially free. So, no matter how tired or fed up I get, that little glimmer of hope pipes up in the back of my mind and reminds me of the relief I’ll feel while walking out of the exam hall for the very last time.

Stress is a big part of the Leaving Cert year, but so is excitement. People have been turning 18 left right and centre, every second person has a learner’s permit, and I’m pretty sure I’ve discovered a dozen new exotic countries I didn’t know existed from listening to people plan sixth-year holidays.

I’ve had a fairly vague idea of where I wanted to go from a young age. I didn’t know how it was going to happen, but I knew I wanted to write. For a while I assumed that meant I didn’t have to go to college (I was pretty happy with that, because when you’re ten, any place that resembled school, however remotely, was to be avoided at all costs). That was until I realised that all my favourite authors actually had degrees. So here I am, all these years later, with that same little dream.

Whether you have a dream, a college, a degree, or none of the above, I hope you’re as excited about finishing this year as I am. Though it has been difficult, at least it’s been temporary. We’ve almost made it, so don’t give up now!

(And enjoy an Easter egg — you deserve it).