By Carla Neeson

1 Introduction

Are you 15 years old? Going into Year 11?

Well, I've got a scary thought for you. In one of her frequent phone calls (the fourth one that day) my friend Charlotte divulged a catastrophic countdown to me. I was informed that in two weeks time we would be back in school (I already wanted to cry), and that in six weeks we would have to hand up five pieces of coursework (a September funeral would be pleasant) but also, that THIS MAY we would be sitting our GCSE's! I don't know about you, but that scares the life out of me. Any one who has recently been through the trauma can now sit back and laugh as we take our turn of coursework, revision and stress. As a very wise teenager once said, It's soooo unfair!

You always think that those horrible landmarks in your early life like the BCG injection and exams are years away. Then they creep up on you and you wonder where all those years of free, innocent childhood went… But before I start reminiscing like I've just hit the big 4-0, I must remember to think positively: "exams and hardship are character building"- so my teacher tells me. "They don't matter, you can fail them over and over again"- my mother supportively tells me. "I don't want to talk about it," my older cousin tells me.