OP RESULTS: Your score won't define you

Reading about the outstanding OP results from a number of Sunshine Coast schools has taken me back to my own anxious wait in 2010.

High school graduates are under too much pressure, Ashley Carter writes. Picture: Trevor Veale

OPINION:

READING about the outstanding OP results from a number of Sunshine Coast schools has taken me back to my own anxious wait in 2010.

Any Queensland high school graduate would know the feeling of nervously staying up until midnight, stressing that you could log in and see the results of years of hard work.

Years of homework, late nights, tiresome group assignments and standardised testing.

And it all comes down to that one number.

The pressure that number puts on kids is horrible. Throughout high school we're told that our OP scores will set the path for the rest of our lives.

As someone who's been through it all, I can't stress to high school students enough that your score isn't the be all and end all.

If you didn't get the score you were hoping for, there are countless other options.

I have friends who didn't even finish high school, but have gone on to complete their degrees and have a successful career before they turned 25.

If you've just received your OP results and aren't sure where to go next, trust me, it won't matter in the long run.

You can easily do a year of another degree and transfer into the one you originally applied for, or simply look into other universities.

If you have absolutely no clue what to do or where to go next, you really don't have to decide right now.

We need to get rid of this pressure to decide on the rest of our lives when we're 18 years old.

There are so many options for school leavers. Whether it's travel, work or study, it will all work out in the end.