After making it through the stress-bomb of Year 12, studying yourself stupid and riding out your final exams, you finally got to relax and rewind with schoolies.

But your carefree weeks of lying on the beach are over and reality is about to hit. It only makes sense that you’re bulldozed with a slew of fresh emotions while you wait for your results to drop.

So strap in and get ready for an emotional rollercoaster. These are just some of the feels you might have – just know you’re not alone.

#1 Excited For The Future

Take comfort in knowing that excitement is definitely a part of the deal. Regardless of the stress of anticipation, it’s an exciting time. You made it through more than 12 years in the schooling system and now that it’s done and dusted, soon you get to choose your own adventure.

Life is about to take off in who knows what direction and contemplating the possibilities is reason enough for you and your mates to be pumped.

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#2 Restlessly Questioning Your Decisions

Unfortunately, it’s only natural for paranoia to be born out of inaction. While there’s nothing more you can do while you wait, that doesn’t stop your brain from restlessly questioning everything that’s been done already.

“Did I take all the wrong subjects?” “Should I have overloaded in case I bomb a subject?”, “Will I be able to get into my top uni preference?”, “Did I even do the application right???”

Try to remain calm. What’s done is done and you can probably trust the choices you made. Everything will end up A-OK

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#3 Shirking Responsibility

After the ~angst~ of stage two, you have a genius idea.

You decide that everything would just be so much easier (and WAY less stressful) if you just handed the keys to your life to someone (or something) else. Let them make difficult decisions for a change!

Hey, your schnauzer has enjoyed 5 years of lazing around – isn’t it time he stepped up to the plate and decided on your future? Wait – is that a magic-8 ball? Quick, shake it and get some actual answers about future you.

Yes, you’re about to be faced with some pretty big decisions – but instead of running away from them, remember that plenty of humans have gone through this exact phase before you. Find some older (and hopefully wiser) people who can help give you real advice when it comes to all uni-related matters and hit them up with your questions. We bet they’ll have better recommendations than your pet dog.

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#4 Defeated (Without Any Good Reason)

Another fun stage to look forward to! As the wait drags on, it’s easy to become convinced you’ve already lost before the game has even begun. Try to slide through stage four because you never know how it’s going to work out and things can get bleak when you give up hope.

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#5 A Welcome Sense Of Chillness

I hope that you are lucky enough to experience a chilled-out sense of acceptance during the wait. Just remind yourself that whatever your final result ends up being, there are lots of options out there for your next step and lots of different pathways your life can take. Even if your ‘chill’ is semi-forced, it’s better than nothing.

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#6 You’ve Got This

Honestly, if you make an effort to think positive thoughts, you might find yourself enjoying a burst of confidence and self-assurance that makes your results seem far less intimidating.

You’ve got this.

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#7 Regressing To Childhood

Hey, remember those halcyon days of primary school? The ones where you had nothing to worry about, you got to hang out with your mates all day, and “learning” involved finger painting… and that’s basically as complicated as life got?

Imagine if you could be a nine-year-old again… Wouldn’t that be great? No responsibilities, nothing to worry about, and, oh yeah, no massive, life-altering exam results hanging over your head.

At this stage, any coping mechanism you can think of is pretty fair game. If pretending you’re a kid, gorging yourself on Happy Meals and watching cartoons makes you feel better for a day or two, bloody well go ahead and do it.

Then, once the results drop you’ll be ready to take the step towards being a real live adult – we promise it’s a lot more fun than it seems right now.

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#8 On Edge About Every. Single. Thing

This is when stress turns into anger and it feels perfectly rational to be annoyed about anything and everything. It can be a fragile week.

You blame your school for getting you here, you blame the system for measuring your intelligence in a few numbers, and you blame time for moving so bloody slowly and you still have no one to blame for this tumultuous emotional ride.

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#9 Distracting Yourself So You Don’t Go Cray

The waiting game is a tough one to play. It can literally drive you crazy if you let it. So try to check back into the world and do life and what not. There are plenty of fun activities you can keep yourself occupied with so that you avoid going completely loopy – you can go to the dog park and hang out with other people’s dogs (hey, it might be creepy but it’s allowed). Or demand your parents take you out for ice cream as if you’re 5 years old. Or watch the entire series of Gilmore Girls (hey, that uni thing ended up working out just fine for Rory, right?! RIGHT?!). The wait will be over soon enough! Try not to lose it.

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#10 Ready For Anything

There’s no real way to avoid the ups and downs of stress and excitement but that is the nature of finishing school. You’re faced with lots of big life decisions that you finally get to make for yourself and your results can be a big decider of what’s in store for the future.

The wait is a rollercoaster but you’ll get through it and whatever your results end up being, it’s just a number at the end of the day. Everything will work out. Good luck!

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(Lead Image: The Simpsons/20th Century Fox)

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Your Year 12 results are not an indicator of your destiny. Swinburne University of Technology has lots of options, no matter how you do. Find out more here.