When I was in secondary school
I really hadn’t a clue. All I knew was what I didn’t want to do, and
throughout sixth year my CAO form became covered in pen from all the crossing
off of courses and adding of others, until I’d eventually whittled it down to
ten, all of which I realised were firmly set in the humanities. My school
guidance counsellor once told me that he thought I was an aesthete, and I
almost feel like I embarked on an English degree at UCD if only to find out
what that word actually meant!
At school I had broad
interests so for my Leaving Cert did a bit of everything – one subject from
business, one science and one foreign language. I’m not exactly sure when I
realised that the humanities were the thing for me. When at the UCD Open Day in sixth year I
saw the breadth of subjects available to me, as well as the size of the
departments in UCD Arts I was beginning to make up my mind.
The Arts Block
Coming from Louth
the big campus vibe really appealed to me - UCD seemed like a town full of young
people, and I wanted to be a part of that. Big enough so that you wouldn’t be
forever running across people you didn’t want to talk to but yet small enough
so you could easily bump into your classmate or friend getting coffee or in the
bar.
