How will I make new friends if I’m in UL one week a month?
‘Everything is so uncertain’
IT’S the final countdown to the release of the first ever Leaving Certificate results based on predictive grades.
Among the 61,000 teenagers waiting to find out whether they will be going to third level college is 19-yearold Alicia Lawless, from Athlone, Co. Westmeath.
The former Our Lady’s Bower student is hoping she will secure a place for her first choice course of Arts at University Limerick.
But now that there is only 24 hours to go before she finds out for sure, the teenager admits she is nervous.
Alicia says: ‘For a while it didn’t really bother me and I put it to one side. I decided not to think about it and not to be stressing about something that wasn’t in my control, but in the last week or so it’s starting to hit home and those anxious feelings are beginning to creep in.
‘I’m worried about accommodation, about whether I need to book it or not or to just go up for the week. The college has said that they might bring us down for one week a month. There’s a lot of uncertainty around it. They are doing the best they can and it’s new for them and it’s new for us.
‘A lot of my friends are going to different colleges and I don’t know about making new friends. I don’t know whether I’ll get to meet people as easily if we are all going to be in the college for one week once a month and three weeks at home. I’m concerned about making friends.
‘And if it’s all social distancing in your course, that hinders making new friends as well.’
Alicia revealed she has paid a deposit for campus accommodation but she’s unsure about taking it up. ‘I don’t know with Covid whether it’s a wise decision. There could be very few on campus and no matter where you go – a hotel, a B&B, campus accommodation – there is the cleaning and the hygiene to think about,’ she said.
‘I’ll probably commute… stay in a hotel for the week I have to go to the college and stay the other three weeks at home. ‘Why pay for accommodation that you won’t be using? Everything is so uncertain.’