A-Level results

If you're collecting your A-Level results today, I hope you get the results you wanted.  If you didn't get the results you wanted, remember that isn't the end of the world - life doesn't end at eighteen years old with a piece of paper shunting you off into some inescapable backwater of boredom because you messed up in an exam.  But don't make the mistake of dismissing disappointing A-Levels as 'not worth anything anyway' either!

Every year, on A-Level results day, social media and the popular press are awash with 'celebrities' denigrating the concept of formal education.  "I didn't get any A-Levels at all, and that didn't hold me back!" says xyz famous, successful person.  "My teachers told me I didn't have any career prospects, but look at me now!" they boast.  "I never learnt to read, write, walk or tie my shoelaces, but I'm still a star!"

It's worth remembering that these people are the exceptions, not the general rule - and that their success in later life is despite their poor performance at school, not because of it.  They still had to work hard to get to where they are in life, because success doesn't happen without work - be that in school, or elsewhere.  If they imply otherwise, that is highly irresponsible of them, because it makes people think that life can be easy, and that there's no correlation between how much effort you put in and what you get out.

A poor set of A-Level results is not going to put an end to all your hopes and dreams - but an attitude of complacency which says you never needed your stupid A-Levels anyway because 'everything will work out in the end' and because people will always reward you for simply 'being you' just might.