What advice would you give your 16-year-old self?
Breath and smile.
Worry not about the fool who stuck gum to your seat, tripped you in the hallway or posted negatively on Insta about you. That shows their insecurities, not yours!
Be a sponge to information knowing that knowledge is power and that you can be anything you desire. Grades are important but, know that your words and how you use them are the most powerful tools you have to success, to be respected and to be respectful.
Life ahead is exciting – embrace the opportunities, enjoy the successes and plough through the tough times, knowing that you are enough.
Lastly remember Oscar Wilde – ‘to live is the rarest thing in the world, most people exist, that is all’.
Schooldays were the best days of my life. Agree/Disagree and why/why not?
National School I loved, great teachers, friends, and a sense of comfort.
Secondary school was to me like entering a zoo. There was territoriality, there were cliques and a lot of attitude. Perceived weak new arrivals were identified swiftly.
The fact that I was a 16 stone, bespectaced (more Deirdre Barlow look as opposed to Gok Wan ) guy who happened to be gay and worse have mad curly hair, really didn’t set me up well with the incumbents, in a technical school in Achill, in the mid 1990s.
I genuinely had a zest for learning though, was blessed with some great teachers, friends and soon found my own way to deal with the incumbents. Never be afraid to stand out and be different was something I embraced quickly.
Two examples – I hated metal work and in the school at that time boys were not allowed do book keeping, after much negotiations in second year I was allowed give up metal work and be the first boy to do book keeping in the school, class schedules had to be changed, (to the lack of amusement of the principal at the time ) so that I could join a class full of girls to do a subject, without which the banking part of my career would never have taken off.
Lastly, it was compulsory for me to do woodwork to Leaving Certificate, which I hated and still do. Many were involved in the completion of my joints and various projects over time, for my Leaving Cert project, I decided it would be theory project to save us all a nightmare, entitled ‘the evolution of buildings over the last 100 years’, many eyebrows were raised, as again it was a first in that school, but it delivered an A at honours level.
The best days came after school, but the learnings and resilience school taught me, have certainly stood to me since.
