EXAM DIARY:OH PEIG, I take it all back. You really came through for me yesterday. Maybe it was because the questions were so lovely, or perhaps it was the thought that we might never meet again, but I was very emotional writing about you: your weaknesses, your strengths, your funny little ways.
Yes, you were moany and miserable and had no idea how to dress. But you were also roguish and brave, and you stuck by me for three Leaving Certs. I don't know what got into me but I wrote five pages about you on yesterday's exam and now I'm at it again.
Irish is a beautiful language and I hope to speak it again very soon. But I will not miss that course. Long, dreary and full of learn-by-heartiness.
I'll be delighted to clear my arteries of Máirtín Ó Direán and get on with it. In fact, as I landed the last "punc" this morning, I felt a great weight lift off my shoulders. I ran from the hot exam hall, peeling off the Aran sweater (yes, I actually wore one) and felt about a stone lighter.
The mention of weight loss will send my mother into a tailspin. She's been troubled by the disappearance of Laura over the last few weeks as a combination of stress, heat and pickiness has whittled my frame down to nothing. I've always been a fussy eater, and when the Leaving rolls around, as it does annually for me, I get even worse.
On Sunday I joined my family at the table, but only to nibble my way through a bag of Hunky Dorys. The rote-learned Irish clogging up my arteries has probably bonded with the crisp fat and will never leave. I woke up 40 minutes late yesterday morning and just about made it to the exam hall in time. Imagine my horror when I realised I had slept through the alarm!
I leapt from the bed, threw on some clothes, ran for the door, caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror ("Good grief I'm not going out looking like that!"), back to the wardrobe, changed outfit and hurtled out on to the street.
If you're going to wear an Aran sweater, you'd better make sure the jeans scream ironic island chic. And the shoes need to be in agreement.
Phew. Today is the turn of French, a pleasant and civilised aspect of the Leaving Cert that always puts me in a good mood. I'm having a croissant and a bowl of coffee for breakfast and wearing Yves St Laurent for good measure.
Bonne chance, moi!
Laura Brady is a repeat Leaving Cert student at the Institute of Education, Dublin
