Thomas Wyse Jackson
CAO Applicant
Oh dear. Did I know the difference between a strong and a weak acid? Did I conjugate my French verbs correctly? Did I answer all of the parts of question four in the physics exam?
These thoughts have been plaguing me for the past month and a half, and will continue to until 9:00 a.m., 15th August. The fact that it has been so long since the exams finished makes it even harder. Immediately after the exam, you discuss with your friends, you analyze, you critique and theorise, you panic, and then eventually, all is forgotten, or at least you tell yourself that is the case. You move on with your life, you go on your sixth year holiday and enjoy yourself; you attend summer parties, have a summer romance, or two, have rained-out summer barbeques and try to enjoy the summer weather.
It is only when August dawns that you realise that those exams you suffered actually have any relevance on your life. In only in 3 days time (at time of writing), I will find out if all those worries were groundless, or whether I’ll be forced to enrol in the institute to repeat the misery.
Yet despite all my sleepless nights over the level of conjugation in my French essays, or my nightmares featuring Hamlet roaring soliloquies, I have managed to think about other things, such as the impending presence of college. A new phase in education, without the need for a choking necktie, or the awkward shape of a school jumper.
To me, Trinity was my only real choice. With my siblings, parents, uncles and aunts, grandparents, and even a great-grandfather or two attending Trinity, the choice seemed pretty much obvious. The stories of my dad reversing into one of the trees on campus, leaving it in a permanently skewed position, even to this day; my uncle surviving on soup of Worcester sauce and boiling water for four days, and numerous other tales mean that going into Trinity will simply be a part of my imagined heritage.
Nonetheless, I know that there are lots of aspects I have barely contemplated – will I enjoy the course? Will I understand the course? Will I understand the library? Will I go to the library? How will I force myself to go to the library? Will I have any spare time to go to the library? Will I have any spare time? Will I need to get a part-time job in my spare time? Will I be able to get a part time job? I guess I’ll find out soon enough.
Though, in just over a month, I’ll be living free, away from the comforts and constraints of my parents. I think about having to do my own shopping, washing, budgeting, cooking for myself, cleaning up after myself, then I get scared and realise I don’t want to leave the nest. Then after five minutes, my fears are forgotten and I look forward to my independence. This assumes that I get the points, of course!
