14/05/2026
Exams are made to feel like the most important thing you’ll ever do in your entire life. I left school with 3 x As in Art, English and Science, I went to do a BTEC in Sport at College and from that moment on I was very much told over and over again that I was not smart. I can pinpoint GCSEs and Sixth Form as a defining moment in how I thought of myself.
Thanks to paper letters and the weight put on those paper letters, I spent so much of my teenage years believing I was not intelligent, not capable, picking the easy subjects, the ones that make people laugh. This is something I still very much carry with me now. There are times when I tell people I didn’t do A Levels that they s t i l l react.
Letters do not define you and what you can do with your life. The story that life is linear and dictated by how you do during an hour of your life at age 15/16 is made up.
Good luck. Try your best. You are you and not a piece of paper.
