The Week End Wind Up

The week where someone else gets to plan your life out for you- NOT!

To be read whilst listening to No limit by 2 Unlimited

This week saw the first wave of 2020 exam results, where eternal success or damnation awaits on the results of exams you may or may not have taken due to the current Covid situation. Results made up by someone based on what they think you may or may not have achieved. Estimating your grade and ultimately deciding whether or not you are going to be able to follow the career path of choice after all the years of hard work- or not- as the case maybe, in regard to both career choice and hard work.
My son was desperate in his efforts to assure us that in the GCSE grading system of 2014, G= Great and F= Fantastic. God loves a trier, unfortunately he doesn’t bestow good grades upon them!

I vividly remember results day of CSEs, GCEs and O levels as they were back in the day. No thoughts of Uni or further education for me- I was finished with education, I was off! The results were all taped up to the inside of the large school reception window, facing out so everyone could clearly see your results, no handing out of brown sealed envelopes back then, obviously life before GDPR. I arrived braced to receive the predicted list of disappointment and failure with my scissors and cut my results out so as not to share them with my peers. I was somewhat taken aback, no more so than my mother who I called to tell her I had passed all nine subjects, seven of them at decent grades including a smattering of As & Bs- a small smattering, but still As & Bs.
My geography teacher, who had predicted spectacular failure was nowhere to be seen. But I so wanted to show her MY A! Thanks to her, at 16 I could tell you all you needed to know about West African Mineral Mines. I couldn’t geographically pinpoint landmarks or cities in the UK unless they had a First Division Football Team- then I could name all the players and the league positions in order

So, what would have happened in 1981 if I had received estimated grades. It would have made for a very different phone call with my mother and I am sure I would have fallen over my geography teacher in her enthusiasm to share my misery. On the flip side, what would have happened if I had received encouragement and support during the proceeding years- that smattering could have been an explosion of good grades and a different attitude to learning and education. Or maybe not! When was the last time you used Algebra or put Pythagoras Theorem to the test?

How much of what we learn counts?
How much of what we need to count on do we learn?

I send a huge dollop of love and good luck to the generation of pubescent immortals who have just got their results and have a lifetime ahead of them. Do I envy you- No- I would hate to have to do it all over again. Growing up is so overrated!

I will say, don’t waste a minute of what lies ahead. I will say embrace every experience, grasp every opportunity. View what lies ahead as an adventure- not a journey and pack accordingly. Go off the beaten track, don’t just tread the same old roads and routes as those who have gone before you. You will have a ball.

For those of us a little further down life’s highway, it’s not too late to start your own new adventure. Take a different route. Embrace every experience. Grasp every opportunity

If Covid-19 has taught us anything it is not to count the days- but to make the days count
Remember – there’s no limit- let me hear you say yah!

Love & Shenanigans

Ruth
x