A-Levels. They’re really over.

That’s it, my last exam is on Wednesday and then that’s it.
Done.
Finished.
Over.

It’s a scary thought really, 13/14 years in school and three exams at the end of this year are what I have worked so hard for. In less than 3 months I shall be leaving the safety of my parent’s home and going off to university and living my life. Spending £7,500 a year for three years, for yet another piece of paper. It’s a daunting prospect, knowing that you have to leave everyone and everything that ever gave you comfort and start again, in a new city, new home, new people; all from scratch.
The people that you’ve moved up the years with in school will probably just become a memory as you all forget about each other; ask yourselves, how many people did you friends with after your GCSEs? Or, if you’re already in university, how many people from your college or sixth form have you stayed in contact with? One? Two? Do you ever look back and wonder how they’re doing? What they’ve made of their life?

It’s strange really, knowing that my life is only just beginning. Now there’s the prospect of finding a job over the summer, not the easiest thing I know; little experience in anything and all I get are rejections. Is it this hard for everyone? I must seem very naive, not knowing what it’s like, but you don’t do you? All those chores that your parents made you do to earn your pocket money, making you wash the pots, teach you how to use the washing machine; it was all preparation for this day. A valuable life lesson that you have to work for your money, “it doesn’t just grow on trees” as my parents like to say.

Just the other day I saw people in Sheffield going to Sheffield University open day and I was thinking, “that was me last year”, and it goes so fast, you don’t realise how little time there is until you actually go. It’s so exciting, knowing that there is a chance to spread your wings.

I was told not long ago, by a teacher of mine, that these past two years of A-Levels are going to be two of the worst years of your life, that they’ll go so slow; but that university is going to be the best three or so years of my life, and that they’re just going to fly by. But you know, these past two years feel like yesterday.

As much as we’re told, “don’t wish your life away”, myself and many people that I have spoken to have wished these last two years away just so we could get to university, we know it isn’t a walk in the park, and it isn’t all partying and getting drunk every night, but it’s a lifestyle that we’re all looking forward to. Forget the fees and the debt that we’ll be in, it doesn’t matter; because this is a milestone in our lives that we just can’t miss.