Paul Nicholls

Finished. Done. Fini. Beendet. No More. Really? It was not the feeling I expected on Thursday as I left the sixth form block, in the knowledge that my secondary education was over. It was with bewilderment and trepidation that I left, not the excitement and relief I had expected.

And as I sit here now, it is slowly starting to sink in that for the next 15 months I will be working full time, 42 hours a week as an IT Technician for a large secondary school, as well as working in the evenings and weekends as a Systems Developer for a massive project far beyond anything I have attempted before. Maybe that explains the unease after the last exam, its not disappointment at leaving education – but anxiety about leaving the comfort zone education provides.

In the back of my mind I know it’s not really for that long, next September I’ll join my peers at University, and re-enter that comfort zone. But will I want to? Taking a gap year was always going to be a gamble, it might make me aspire towards furthering my education, or it might give me a taste for freedom (and money) that I won’t want to relinquish. But which will it be?

AS/A2 resources for Computing, Maths (C1-C4 + M1-M2), Religious Studies (Philosophy of Religion + Ethics) and Physics can be found at http://saps2.mine.nu/school/ASA2/, all work is my own unless stated otherwise.

I pray thou shalt be swallowed by a whale with excessively bad breath, O ye exceedingly foolish virgin!

Curse!
Ta for the link Rob

Ok so I finally gave in and got myself a myspace… Its just as sucky as I suspected, but then I had already decided I wasn’t going to like it… If you’re curious or alerady use it , http://www.myspace.com/r9paul [Link Fixed] feel free to add me or whatever.

On a different note, I finally finished school and its really really weird. Last few days have just been a rollercoaster of emotion, I’ve waited so long to be rid of school and now its actually over I can’t work out whether that makes me happy or not. There are of course things I will not miss in the slightest (a certain teacher’s maths lessons, for example…) but even though I loathe them, will there be part of me that misses the loathing?

Of course the main thing I will miss is the people, I don’t have to wave goodbye to the building and staff for another year yet. Being a prefect I feel I’e made some really close friendships this past year. I’m going to miss the things we all do together, the random lazing about on the sofas pretending to do some work, and then the frantic organising when we realise we have 24 hours left to organise a concert, or a party or whatever.

I’m planning on setting up a keep-in-contact service over the next few weeks. Should let everyone post their details (MSN, e-mail, address, myspace, phone, uni, job, etc) somewhere that everyone else can get to. If anyone wants to be involved in that please let me know.