Post by @3liyeeen

to every student receiving their leaving cert results today, especially those who opened that piece of paper and felt their heart sink because it wasn’t what they had hoped for, i know how you feel. ❤️ i know how devastating it can feel to spend years working towards a certain number of points, imagining a particular course, a particular university, a particular future, only to see a result that doesn’t match the picture you had in your head. and when medicine is the dream, that disappointment can feel even heavier. you can convince yourself that if you don’t get those points today, everything you worked for is over. but i promise you, it isn’t. there are so many different routes into medicine, and not getting the points you needed today does not mean you cannot become a doctor. your journey might look different from the one you imagined at 18, and it might take a little longer, but different does not mean worse. i wish i could go back to 2021 and sit beside the girl i was on leaving cert results day, the girl who was crying, devastated that she hadn’t gotten into medicine in ireland, convinced that the dream she had worked so hard for was slipping away from her. i wish i could tell her: “one day, you are going to look back at this day and realise it was never the end of your story. you are still going to become a doctor.” i wonder how much that would have alleviated the pressure i was putting on myself that day. because now, years later, i am in medical school and on my way to becoming a doctor. and the thing that felt like the biggest failure in the world at 18 became nothing more than a detour. so if you are sitting there today feeling disappointed, please let yourself feel it. you worked hard. you had hopes. you are allowed to be upset that things didn’t go exactly as you wanted. but please don’t turn one day of results into a verdict on your entire future. your points do not measure your intelligence. they do not measure your potential. they do not determine how good a doctor, lawyer, teacher, engineer, nurse, scientist, artist, or anything else you will become. and they certainly do not determine your worth. your leaving cert results are a result. they are not your identity. there are students who will get exactly what they wanted today and still change their minds. there are students who won’t get what they wanted today and will go on to achieve things they never even imagined. there are students whose paths will be straightforward, and students whose paths will have detours, transfers, repeats, alternative routes and unexpected opportunities. and all of those paths are valid. so to the student who is crying tonight because you didn’t get the points for medicine, i have been in your shoes. i know the feeling of thinking, “what am i going to do now?” i know how overwhelming it is to watch the points come out and feel like your entire future has been decided in one moment. it hasn’t. take a breath. let yourself be disappointed. then, when you’re ready, start looking at your options. there are more of them than you probably realise right now. and one day, you may look back at the version of yourself sitting there with that piece of paper in your hands and wish you could tell them what i wish i could have told myself: “you’re going to be okay. this is not the end. your dream is still possible. keep going.” my heart genuinely goes out to every student today who is unhappy or disappointed with their results. ❤️ your leaving cert results are a chapter of your story, not the ending. #fyp#leavingcert26#leavingcertresults#lcresults#leavingcertresultsday