Stephen Byrne has told RTÉ Entertainment that he hopes his documentary Leaving Again, which saw him re-sit his Leaving Certificate, makes his parents proud as he "made life very difficult for them" when he did his exams for the first time back in 2009.
Watch Stephen talk about the moment "my teenage self entered my body":
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For Leaving Again, which is now available on the RTÉ Player, broadcaster Stephen went back to 6th year and re-sat his exams, all while maintaining his full-time job.
Speaking about his parents' reaction to his decision to embark on this journey – and to share it with the nation on television – he said they were naturally concerned.
"They were more worried about me because they knew that last year I wasn't in the best frame of mind and they knew I'd had a pretty bad year with my own mental health, so they were like 'Is this the right thing to do?' But they trust me I think," he told RTÉ Entertainment.
"I made life very difficult for them when I was like 19, so if I can make them proud in any way by doing something like this, being able to talk about mental health, and have people in their work go, 'Oh I saw Stephen's programme last night, it was amazing' like that's all I could ask from something like this," he said.
"They are literally the greatest people in the world, if anything I hope people from this will be like, 'Your mum and dad are sound'."
Watch Stephen talk about his first day back in school & those all-important results:
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Stephen never opened his Leaving Cert results as a teenager, instead choosing to shred them, so at the end of the documentary he opens his new results from this year and his original results from 2009.
Through his journey he learned a lot about himself, and had a moment he described as "weirdly sprititual" when he felt as though "my teenage self entered my body."
"I had a weird moment, and I'm not religious, but there was a moment around March, and the only way I can describe it is, I was lying in bed and I felt like my teenage self entered my body again," he explained.
"And that sounds very spiritual – I would say I'm spiritual somewhat – but there was a moment where there was an overwhelming sense of connection with that child again, that 18 year old, and I'd always felt quite separated from that person."
Leaving Again is available on the RTÉ Player.
