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IF YOU GREW up in Ireland, you’ll be only too familiar with the crippling, overwhelming fear that comes with Leaving Cert results day.
Your future happiness, all your chances in life, are hanging in the balance.
Your entire fate rests in the three digits that are about to be revealed to you – or does it?
Hundreds of thousands of young men and women are about to go through that ritual nightmare when they get their results this coming Wednesday, so we thought we’d test the idea that this set of exams determines the course of the rest of your life.
Imagine you could travel back in time, and for some masochistic reason you picked that day, of all days, to return to – what would say to your poor, terrified 17 or 18-year-old self?
Whether you walked away with 600 points without breaking a sweat, or missed out on your first five CAO choices, you know a lot more now than you thought you did five, 10, 30 years ago.
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This question provoked an avalanche of beard-stroking nostalgia and unresolved bitterness among the team at TheJournal.ie – here’s a flavour of the responses, which ranged from the philosophical…
Embrace the art of positive spin. How you sell your results to your parents will be the impression the rest of your family get, so don’t talk about how you should’ve studied more.
Just getting into college gives you plenty of options so don’t obsess on what choice you got.
to the weirdly specific…
Don’t worry about failing chemistry, it’s your fault for taking it just because you fancied the teacher anyway.
And from brutal honesty…
Get a haircut.
…to hard-won wisdom…
Nothing is ever as bad as it seems.
Enough about us – this is your chance to roll back the years, maybe save a few quid on therapy, and speak directly to your former self.
So – what advice would you give yourself on Leaving Cert results day?
Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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Won’t happen. Too much invested in the EU already by all parties. Nobody will leave and nobody will push for the dissolution of the EU no matter how much pain it causes to the average joe.
Don’t be silly, of course the EU/Euro policies are working.
The bond holders still have all their money and they are happily making more and more money speculating on the ups and downs of currencies and shares in these topsy turvy economic times.
The rich are still getting rich, the plan is working.
Yes, failing miserably (except for the rich elites, as already pointed out).
But there should be no surprise whatever.
Apply ‘austerity’ policies, which means removing money/spending from the aggregate economy, which means GDP falls & unemployment grows, which means our debt position either stagnates or even becomes worse. Precisely as happening.
It’s not rocket science, just ‘macro’ economics, tho’ it seems most mainstream economists struggle with it, but then who mostly pays +them+? (Back to our rich elites & bankers I think.)
Debt sustainability, employment etc comes from economic growth, not contraction by ‘austerity’.
And the good news is that even we in the Eurozone have an entity that can fund the stimulus spending required at no cost whatever to anyone – the ECB, if properly mandated to do so (under proper democratic control).
Learn about MMT economics & find out why. For serious students, a new textbook is due out later this year.
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