Welcome to the jungle! this is a wild and pwerful place which you have trespassed into, and you are at the bottom of the food chain. But don't let that scare you, I'm here to help you to not become a pack of sixth year's lunch!
To survive, you must keep your head down. Be quiet, but not a ''loner'', be observant, but not nosey, don't draw attention to yourself, but don't become invisible. most importantly, don't look an older student directly in the eye as you will be greeted with; ''have you got a staring problem or what?''. so be discrete but also able to fight your own battles when you need to; ''look like the butterfly, sting like the bee''.
Second step to jungle survival is to never cry in school. It is the worst scenario imaginable. You may as well treck through with a sign on your back saying ''Kick Me''. Which reminds me, if you are walking down a pathway, you come to two parallel lines of male animals, abottle in the centre, what ever you decide to do, DO NOT KICK THE BOTTLE! as this may lead to actual bodily harm resulting in a trip to the vet.
Finally, on a lighter note, when teacher's tell you the Junior Certificate Examinations are extremely important, do not believe them. They have been trained to become compulsive liar's to the student body. As soon as the Junior Certificate is over they will tell you it does not matter, to forget about it now, it has no meaning. They will then throw the Leaving Certificate at you. If you ask me, I think they get a kick out of stressing us out.
So remember the jungle rules, blend in, avoid the bottle (including the alcoholic kind, it's not ''cool'') and don't believe everything your teacher's tell you. So relax, have fun and remember, these are the best days of your lives. Or so they tell us anyway!