IN the words of Alice Cooper, 'School's out for Summer'.

Mums everywhere take a deep breath, kids scream, and teenagers party.

I am very happy that I will get to spend some time with my teacher best friend Catherine.

For many though, 'school's out’ forever.

I went to South Wilts, and remember when I finished school forever. I don't know what I was expecting but I had hoped it would be like the end of Grease when they all graduate and there's the ferris wheel and the candy-floss machine and the rama lama ding dong.

Even though I was 18 and considered an adult (like most of the 'teenage' cast of Grease whose ages ranged from 23 to 33) the sense of loss, change and poignancy brought on the kind of emotional self-indulgence which occurs only in teenage girls and internationally famous divas.

I was already nostalgic for the day even while it was happening, as I signed shirts and yearbooks and whooped it up in the late afternoon sun with a bottle of Martini Bianco.

I was off to university but had no idea what I wanted to do afterwards. Things are so different now - school-leavers are much savvier than I and my peers were, thank god.

I always liked writing, but didn't have the confidence to think I could do it as a career, and eventually came to it relatively late at the age of 26.

I actually don't think there's anything wrong with not knowing exactly what you want to do when you leave school, but I do think it's good to ask the questions, what do I enjoy? What am I good at? Could these things be translated into a career?

Twenty years later, I have finally figured some things out. However, I still don't know who put the bop in the bop shoo bop shoo bop, or indeed who put the ram in the rama lama ding dong.

Maybe I never will.