All will be changed, changed utterly, in just under a month

This year, students again had the option of viewing their marked scripts in the comfort of their own schools. Curiosity getting the better of me. I requested all my papers, feeling that it was a good way to "end off" the Leaving Certificate.

Some of my results were higher than I had expected, while others were a little disappointing. In both cases, I just had to know why.

Most of the answers were provided by last Friday's viewing, but others, such as the marks awarded to me for oral and practical exams, will be lost in the great wilderness of Exam HQ out there in Athlone. Maybe some things are best left to lie.

It's going to be around a month before I actually start at college. The wait will give me time to update my wardrobe, practice saying "Yah!" and carefully weigh up all the juicy freebies being dangled by AIB, Bank of Ireland et al.

For all the talk about broke students, insufficient grants and ludicrous rental rates, someone obviously has an eye to the future, looking ahead to the time when we students will actually have healthy bank balances. (Sometime around 2010 is a good bet.) I'm looking forward to that already. For the moment, I'll get acquainted with those cheap phones that are on offer.

Old routines die hard, I suppose. For the past two years my timetable included physics every Monday morning and a very trying double Irish class on Thursdays after lunch. All that is gone now, forever.

New habits will have to be established and there will be new people to meet, new food to eat, new places to go. In fact, almost everything will be new.

I cannot even fathom what college life will be like, but I'm sure it will have its ups and downs. For me, learning through English will be the biggest change. For six years, I have been educated through Irish. My thought processes are conducted in a hybrid of English, Irish, and for a short while, pidgin German. Now Irish will be less prominent, if not invisible.

When I went into Colaiste Raithin, oh so long ago, I was told by Damien (art teacher and all-round good guy): "If you're good enough to go to college, you're good enough to do it through any language." I hope he's right.

In third year, I'll have the opportunity to study abroad. Then, my brain will really resemble a new Tower of Babel.

I suppose everyone goes into college with different expectations. Me, I don't really know what I'm looking for, so it will be hard enough to find it. Hopefully, fun and games will be had in the meantime.

For the moment, the preparations continue. I'm looking forward to getting started, but with a little apprehension. So, if you, too, are starting college, good luck.

Remember, there's always something being given away, it's great to be a student and the exams aren't that hard.

They aren't, are they?