By Florence Dewhurst
– Week 6 –
Contrary to popular belief, TY 2020 isn’t all bad. We don’t have Christmas tests, unlike my younger brothers, who have been ‘studying’ for exams all week – sitting in their bedrooms staring at the same page for hours on end before having a break from ALL that laborious work!
How in the world am I supposed to go back to hard school work next year? I have no idea.
Instead of tests though, we have a project week, where the general idea is to work on different projects all day instead of enduring regular classes.
I’m not too sure how stressed out I should be by this, but at the moment, I’m not giving it a second thought, which probably isn’t the best idea.
However, instead of doing my projects in school, I’ve volunteered to become a supervising attendant for the exams. This mainly involves giving staplers and paper to the teachers in the classes but for the most part, doing nothing for hours.
I’m not sure if it was a great idea to volunteer for this, because it means I’ll have to do all my projects at home, and that will surely only pile on the pressure.
It’s a bad habit of mine to agree to do everything, before realising I have absolutely no time to do any of it. I’m pretty sure this runs in the family- we worry that we’ll miss out if we don’t give everything a try.
This Thursday is my birthday and TYs in Loreto have the day off to ‘do their projects’ (sleep). However, since I agreed to this exam supervision role, I have, in fact, also agreed to come to school on that day while most people get the day off. Even as I write this, I’m starting to question why I agreed to it…
I was thrilled to find out that we’re going into level three restrictions this week and that restaurants are reopening.
I’ve been dying to get to Cork when it’s dark to see all the lights. There’s something about it, walking around in the cold at night, knowing that you can go home to the stove lighting after you’re done with your (fairly unsuccessful) Christmas shopping.
Usually, I’m quite opinionated about the fact that Christmas doesn’t officially begin until after my birthday.
I swear to God, if my brother asks us to play Christmas songs in the middle of November ever again…!
But this year, after the turmoil we’ve experienced with Covid-19, I think it’s appropriate that Christmas starts earlier, to raise everyone’s spirits. I still don’t think that’s an excuse to put your Christmas tree up at the start of November though!
To my ‘delight’, my parents dragged one of my brothers and I out of the house to go for a walk in Corrin today.
“Ah lads, ye’ve been stuck inside on those devices all day!”- bear in mind, this was at 11 o’clock in the morning.
As with most walks, it turned out not to be completely awful. Something really funny happened actually; we were walking along, and we bumped into some people who were asking for directions.
Then the woman looked at me and said “You’re the girl who has an article in the Avondhu. Well done.” It was strange to be recognised by someone who I didn’t recognise, but also very gratifying. Is this my claim to fame?
This time next week I’ll be one year older, one week closer to Christmas and two levels closer to normal life. A guilt-free time to get those lights and trees up, get the Michael Bublé CD out and remember, shop local!
Florence Dewhurst is a TY student at Loreto Secondary School, Fermoy
