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Exam Weather
Anne Enright recalls the angst and anticipation of waiting for exam results ...
Even now I look at a sunny day and say 'Oh look, it's real exam weather.' Which is to say, hot. Hot and glorious during the exams, and then, after the exams, hot, pointless and still. And then, as you wait and wait for the results...hot.
No amount of superstition, or horoscopes, or looking for signs, can match the dread of that final summer - the last time you knew what you really wanted. Like ... I just want 2 Cs. I just want a B, I just want to pass.
I dreamt about my results. Someone handed them to me on a piece of paper, in the middle of an adventure sort of scuba diving dream. It turned out that what I wrote down - all six results, of the six exams you do in Ireland - were actually correct.
Maybe I never lost the long, aching rage of that final summer. It is the ultimate adolescent moment, suspended, in thrall to a system you hate. When you grow up you laugh and say it was all about being awkward, and not knowing, and bad skin and sex. But maybe you were right and the whole thing was unfair. Or just stupid. Or just Not Relevant.
But when you're waiting for your results, it always matters. It is close and hot and still. Somewhere in the distance, a piece of paper is making its way to you. A piece of paper that means everything.
Do you recall waiting for a piece of life-changing news - how did you feel?
What impact did it have on you and those
around you?
Was it a good experience?
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