'I was five points short for my top CAO choice, but I love what I am doing now'
My Story: Chloe Morey | Arts, NUI Galway

Source: Irish Independent

Chloe Morey was disappointed when her Leaving Certificate results left her five points short to study midwifery.

"The pressure of knowing what I wanted to do was more than the Leaving Cert itself, it was really bearing down on me," said Chloe (23) of Sixemilebridge, Co Clare.
Having narrowly missed her course of choice, Chloe said: "In the space of an hour I was going to repeat, I was going to do a PLC - I had all these plans."

Although she had to be convinced to try her backup course - arts in NUI Galway - as time passed she found that she loved it and she hasn't looked back.
"It wasn't nice at the start trying to figure it out, but I just said to myself 'look, I've got to give it a year'. And as I got into it, I loved it. I loved history and geography. It wasn't like what you did in secondary school - there were loads of different strands," she said.

Chloe, a past pupil of St Caiman's Community School, Shannon, was accepted to NUIG's prestigious Sports Scholarship programme for camogie. In 2013 she won a GAA All-Star award and she says that the scholarship programme had a part to play in her win.
"Galway has an excellent gym and nutrition plans, and they've a sports psychologist too. It was class what I got out of it. I'd never tried stuff like that before, and they were so helpful - and it was the same for the boys and girls up there."

After trying out a day in a hospital after finishing her degree, Chloe can now say that she's glad she missed out on the points for midwifery.
When a career guidance counsellor reminded her of her love for coaching teenagers in camogie, she decided to pursue a master's in education, teaching History and Geography.

"You might go into the wrong course at the start, or you mightn't get your course, but everything happens for a reason and you can always branch out and go into something else," is Chloe's advice to current Leaving Cert students. "Just try not to panic; there's loads of years ahead of you and you're not confined to anything."