Quirkbag Collection #33 – 27.02.26
The 2025 A-Level results are released today. Literally every single JC student can feel the anxiety overflowing from the school hall. I remember exactly how it felt when I collected my own results 2 years ago, so nervous that I chose to arrive late intentionally to avoid the crowd and the unnerving probes from classmates.
I stood outside the hall while the crowd dissipated, entering only when there was no queue left. There was no mental capacity for conversation as I could only think about the results in my hand once I had collected it. I had this palpable anxiety and fear that rivalled my inner composure.
But that’s all history now, and you can easily find my academic background on LinkedIn.
A Reflection Inspired By Pete Sampras
It felt an apt time to reflect on my own JC journey now that there is some distance between me and my old self. And yes, it does seem true that growing older and finishing NS have granted some clarity.
I read the letter Pete Sampras wrote to his younger self and felt encouraged to be kinder to my past self. So what better way to reflect than through a letter to my old self; a younger Zac who had more naivety, endurance and stress than the current one.
The Letter
Hey dude,
I’m you, but older.
In 2023 your life is going to pivot greatly, but the impact is felt afterwards.
As you celebrate your 18th birthday, when the skies are still clear and your mind less cluttered by school, you should take more time to enjoy that day. It’s a day you won’t get back.
You will enjoy Mediterranean cuisine for lunch, but the exact food and taste you won’t remember very clearly in the coming years. But it was the experience you remember and hold dear, just like many others.
A classmate will wish you well, but that friendship will end abruptly in several months. You will not know why, and you’ll keep wondering until you enlist in the army. Eventually, you’ll move on; so will they (at least that’s what I think).
This will teach you to hold your closest friends tightly and choose carefully the ones you wish to keep investing in. Your singular focus on individual excellence, consistency and commitment to yourself will be isolating. You will have meals alone, walk alone, study alone, but that’s because you know what you need to do.
Deep down, you know what it takes. Don’t let people confuse you.
More and More Of The Same – Mundane
From April to June, your life will be incredibly mundane and repetitive. The days blur into one. But even you can foresee it now.
You will conclude your time in the school’s Air Rifle/Pistol Shooting Club with an unremarkable and arguably tragic performance in the final competition in which you will ever partake. The night before, you and 2 other team mates will each give a parting speech.
It’s important you don’t hide what you feel and tell them the truth, because the next day, you will not make the cut to the Shooting Finals and as you struggle to accept it, the parting speeches remind you of the journey you’ve been on.
Eventually, you’ll learn to accept it. Trust me, even though it’s a very bitter pill to take.
Your volunteering project will end in April, with a rather well-received Easter Egg Hunt which you will plan and organise. In May, more juniors than you expected will apply to take over this project from you, from whom you will select 5 that you will be proud of. They all want the same thing – to run the project.
It’s critical that you stick to your intuition for which junior suits the project best when making your choice of successors, because that’s as good as you’ll do. That’s as good as your senior did when he chose you. The rest will take care of itself.
It will not be the last time you cross paths with your senior, though you’ll never see him again until Nov 2024.
Studying And More…Studying
In June, you will have a first taste of what grinding for the A Level exams feels like. You will make a revision plan for your 5 subjects that seems wholly impossible to complete, and your instinct is correct. You don’t end up finishing the plan.
Instead, you adapt it based on your progress and areas for improvements. It ends fairly well. But it won’t be important because you won’t remember the results.
In August, you will study for the prelims of 5 subjects without many breaks. When you feel out of gas, you must remember to hang in there. It’s only the prelims.
After the prelims, you will serendipitously reconnect with an old friend and find yourself enjoying lunch with him after revision classes. It’s a rare chance for you to feel at ease again as you genuinely bond over the shared struggles of the exams, the difficulty of the papers, the unrelenting stress and the mutual answers to “so what are you going to do later when you go home?”
Like mirror images, your answers are usually mutual – study, albeit for a different topic.
As October comes, you will be the most stressed and mentally torn you have ever been. And you will not feel ready to take on the pressure. It’s the most mentally gruelling and exhausting experience you will have, where every single day is a fight for productivity and revision. You will never have felt more alone.
There will be so many mornings spent sitting at the same table outside the offices studying for General Paper (GP) while waiting for revision classes, sometimes in the company of another classmate. It will be extremely slow and boring. You won’t even feel like you are progressing.
Nonetheless, never quit, remind yourself often.
The End Draws Closer
Before the end, you will be asked to attend your graduation ceremony. You will be very tempted to skip it because you find it a waste of time. You would rather spend it at home studying.
That would be a mistake.
Promise me that you will still go for it, even to just sit and walk across the stage for your 20 seconds of fame. It is closure for you, and you deserve to walk that stage after everything that you went through.
Enjoy that last moment before you leave, holding that bouquet of flowers in the warm afternoon sun. You will do well to take that photo with your family, even if you feel reluctant at the moment thinking about the upcoming exams. You have now graduated.
Sweeter Than Bitter, At Long Last
Once A-Levels begin, time will fly by faster than you think. The first week is the worst. You will be stunned and shocked. But you roll with it. You just have to remember to take it one paper at a time. The weeks begin to pass faster and it gets far easier towards the end because all your toughest papers are at the start.
When it does end, please indulge in that moment a little more. You will remember taking one last walk along the overhead corridor above the canteen toward the gate, as you tell yourself that at long last, it is over and you never have to go through it again.
At home, you finally relish in disposing of all the newly irrelevant papers, notes and practices. You’re free from school.
This Is Your Life Now
At the end of it all, your future is changed because you will have chosen to devote an enormous amount of time and life into studying. You will keep asking yourself whether all that sacrifice was worth it.
Sometimes I’ll say “yes”, and other times, “no”. But you will do well.
Your life is now yours again, briefly, and you will benefit from cherishing the time spent with your family. There is no next exam to shift your focus to anymore. This is literally your life now.
I only wish that you found more joy and enjoyment in your JC journey, because it was one that very few get to go through. Oh and, say thank you to your closest friend who went through it all with you, day by day, because he did not have it any easier.
He’ll continue to be your best friend.
He still is.
Yours truly,
Zac
No number of words will ever come close to describing the brutal and tumultuous studying that some JC students do. There are very few people who can relate and empathise with this unique kind of struggle and pain. And sometimes we forget that we’re only 18.
The hard work can go unrecognised.
It’s true that the world does not reward effort. Universities don’t do charity under the disguise of someone’s “effort”. But we should never forget about “effort”, especially the relentless kind by those around us.
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Hi! I’m Zac, the guy behind this slightly off-beat, quirky blog. I’m currently on a quest to find out more about myself, who I am and what life has to offer before Uni starts. This blog is my little secret space where I step out of my comfort zone to share my thoughts and life experiences. I hope you enjoy reading. I do weekly posts. Share them if you like, or not.
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