What appealed to me most about transition year is that I would be able to stay in the same year as all my friends. I would be able to relax for a year and not have to worry about homework or projects or exams.
That I would be able to take up new hobbies, try out new sports and have some time for myself. I'd be able to actually spend time with my family and catch up on the latest series on Netflix. I'd have time to take the dog on a walk or spend time with my Granny.
I'd be able to have fun in school and classes would be relaxed and not packed with important notes and paragraphs to remember. There'd be no cramming the night before an exam or late nights up finishing projects I left until the last minute.
I would be able to do what I want to do, meet up with whoever after school and not stress over pages and pages of math questions that I’d have to do later on that evening. There'd be no due dates, no week of Christmas exams to dread and no pressure. That was what appealed to me most, the freedom. But with the freedom of TY, comes time to think.
Sometimes, I think that I might have made the wrong decision. I feel that I am only procrastinating studying for the leaving cert, putting it off as long as I can, trying not to think about it for as long as possible... because its scary to think about how little time I have left in school.
I know that either way I'll have to study and I’ll have to do exams and I'll have to do those pages and pages of maths homework... but going out into the ‘big bad world’ as they say, it does scare me a little bit.
But then again when I leave school, I can do whatever I want. I can choose whatever career I want, go into any industry, any line of work, anything I want. Now that does appeal to me. Being able to start a swimming club or build houses for the homeless in Syria. I'd be able to study sea creatures in the Great Barrier Reef or design the next skyscraper in New York city.
I could write the next Lord of the Rings or be the next movie star. The options are endless and that’s what I like about Ireland, that you can do almost anything you like, you could build the next billion-dollar company or open a small little pottery shop on Achill island.
The only question is how do I choose?
There are so many different industries I could go into, how can I possibly choose? How can I choose only one? I have so many different interests and hobbies, so how can I narrow it down to one? And that’s another big thing in TY, is to try figure out what you want to do. And to be completely honest I am no closer at figuring it out than I was 3 months ago.
Anyways... gone a bit off topic. My experience of TY so far has been quite good. We got to go on a few trips so far. We went to Lahinch for surfing and we did a bog run in Killary. Those were all very enjoyable but we don’t get to go on that many trips which is kind of bad.
To be completely blunt, the classes are very boring, we don’t learn anything, like at all. And I'm not complaining, I love not having to do exams but I'd like to learn a bit more in class, just a little bit more.
Overall, I think that TY Is worth doing but to get the most out of it you have to participate in all the different activities in school otherwise you'll be bored to death.
Also, I'd recommend you try out new hobbies in your extra time because you'll have a lot of extra time on your hands, and you'll have to fill it up with something or you might just start doing the dishes when your parents ask you to... absolutely not.
