Volume 1 (1999/2000)
Issue 1 (March 1999)
Issue 2 (Nov. 1999)
Issue 3 (Dec. 1999)
Issue 4 (Feb. 2000)
Issue 5 (March 2000)
Issue 6 (April 2000)
Issue 7 (May 2000)

Volume 2 (2000/2001)
Issue 1 (Sept. 2000)
Issue 2 (Oct. 2000)
Issue 3 (Jan. 2001)
Issue 4 (March 2001)
Issue 5 (April 2001)
Issue 6 (May 2001)

Volume 3 (2001)
Issue 1 (Sept. 2001)
Issue 2 (Nov. 2001)

Categories
Sport: 1 2 3
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Event: 1 2 3

Receiving the Results

Rachelle Hanley
Ballincollig CS, Cork

The principal's familiar voice came booming over the intercom at about 11:50am. Everyone knew what was about to happen and the already nervous chatter grew louder and even more nervous. The slight butterflies that I had been experience all morning turned into stabbing pains in my stomach. As the chatter grew louder, the teacher pleaded unsuccessfully for us to ‘keep the noise down’. As I trudged towards the cafeteria, I think I still didn't believe that I was about to get the results. My classmates and I had spent the summer both worrying about and trying to forget about this day. The feelings of dread, anxiety and excitement were almost too much to bear and I felt as if I was about to explode.

In the cafeteria we were lined up by classes and given a short but unbearable talk about the coming night. The results were given in alphabetic order. First came the As, then the Bs and Cs and soon I heard the familiar names of the Gs. At this point my heart and stomach felt as though they would escape my body. I could hear my friends' voices saying "don't worry, it will be ok". Compared to the sound of my thumping heart they sounded miles away. I took the envelope when my name was called out, but I couldn't bear to look at it, never mind open it. I went outside where one of my friends was examining her results with a huge grin on her face. The 8 A's stood out a mile on her yellow slip of paper and as I read them I felt as though a knife had been plunged into my gut. A friend, seeing my distressed state, ran over saying "it's gonna be ok". Despite her words of comfort, the courage I needed to open the envelope wasn't there. The screams of joy from others were too much to bear and I quickly made my way into the school. There, I found one of my friends looking even more upset than I was but she had opened her envelope. I hugged and reassured her and said that it would all be forgotten in a week. We found an open cloakroom that was empty and I finally had the courage to open the envelope.

Slowly I opened the folded sheet of paper and examined the list from bottom to top, knowing that the disastrous results of my worst subject would be at the top. The anxiety I felt all day left me the minute I looked at the yellow slip of paper in my hands. For the first time that day I felt happy and relieved that it was finally over.

Now, looking back, I feel slightly angry that the pressure we were put through was for nothing more than a few letters on a yellow slip of paper, soon to be forgotten. That day I think I experienced nearly every emotion from anxiety to anger, from fear to confidence and from terror to joy. It was a day that I know will stay in my memory for a long time.

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