I've seen a lot of tweets and statuses wishing people luck with their GCSE results and one stuck out; a celebrity (Louisa Lytton) tweeted where she had been when she was given hers (the set of Eastenders) and it made me think about my results day...
I think I've made it known on here that my 'trauma' happened whilst I was in High School and I couldn't tell anyone what was happening to me so I tried to show them. I acted up at School. A lot. And badly. And then, on April 20th 2007, I was given a fixed-term exclusion. I had to sit my GCSE exams alone and I wasn't allowed to prom or sixth form.
Needless to say my GCSE exams were stressful! I had always struggled with maths so I was given a private tutor to help me with my revision for that. I wasn't allowed to attend revision classes at school so I organised that myself with Mum's advice to still treat each day at home as though it were a school day in that I had a 'break-time' and lunch etc. It was obviously hard to avoid being distracted by the TV and I think that part of me wasn't too bothered about the effort I put in. I guess, I had already declared myself a failure; I mean, who hires the girl that was excluded less than a month before her exams?!
I still had aspects of my 'trauma' continuing during this revision time too which complicated things. And a lot of my hard work was sabotaged by the person involved. Needless to say, I wasn't holding out much hope for my results.
I got a phone call the day of my results from this person who was sadly still trying to ruin my life, but I was suddenly determined. I'd allowed him to take so much from me and a 'normal' GCSE results day, would not be one of them. The person eventually 'backed down' and I met a friend to go into school and collect my results. It was ironic to have the biggest academic moment in a school which had brought me so much unhappiness but once I saw my results I was more bothered about telling my Mum! I went to her work to tell her that I had passed all 9 of my subjects and even had two B's and she raced me round her work telling everyone that her daughter had passed all of her GCSEs. It was so amazing to give my Mum something to be proud of me for after so long of causing her stress with my constant detentions etc.
My GCSE results day will be with me for a very long time because...
1. it was the first time I realised how good it feels to make my Mum happy
2. it was the end of me relying on that school for my academic success
3. it was the end of all compulsory ties to the school
So, I hope you all got the results you wanted!
