With exams finally over, plans for summer are well in sight. Now the only thing standing between me and Nepal are the long, drawn out weeks after exams are finished, where absolutely all motivation, that was previously present during exam season, has been spent, leaving the sixth form Riley Centre like a room full of zombies, where everyone is counting down the hours until we can break up for the summer.
However, the last couple of weeks have not been completely flat. Last night’s Summer Ball really did help everyone spring back to life. With the past couple of months being a continuous cycle of revising and relaxing, making the effort to get all dressed up and go out with friends was very much needed. And let’s just say the night was not uneventful…(it never is with us lot!)
During exam season, everything else that you enjoy does tend to fall to the bottom of your priority list, and this year in particular, I have found it especially difficult to transition from revising lots and lots for my exams, to now feeling like I have nothing to do. I am not very good at switching off, so the couple of weeks after exams finished, I’ve got to admit that I was quite low, and it wasn’t just because I was burnt out, it was more because I felt like I had no purpose (I know that sounds dramatic). But as the weeks rolled on, I started to remember the things I enjoyed doing with my time, and have tried to get back in to all my singing and painting etc.
One thing that made the transition easier was the long list of wider reading I have set myself, which managed to build itself up over exams. Just for context, my ambition is to study PPE (politics, philosophy and economics), hopefully at Oxford, so you can probably imagine that there is no shortage of books to be read, or essay competitions to be entered. But to be honest, I really like it. One of the good aspects of being a so called ‘nerd’ is that I do actually love to learn, so it doesn’t feel like a chore like it does for a lot of people.
My mum and I attended my first open day in Oxford - and I absolutely loved it! All the lectures and talks definitely gave me an incentive to keep working hard. But even as I wandered around the gorgeous city, as I have done in the other cities I have visited as potential University options, I still can’t get it into my head that in about a year, I will be living in one of those cities (if all goes well, hopefully). That I will be at university, an adult, on my own, able to do loads of ‘grown-up’ things. I am not an immature person, well I don’t think I am, and I am reasonably intelligent and quite sensible, but I do not feel like an adult at all! I am really excited about going to university, but it almost doesn’t feel real. It feels like one of those plans that you and your friends make that you know isn’t going to happen, but you discuss it and act like it is none the less.
But University is not for another year yet, so time to look to the more immediate future. My Nepal trip is a mere couple of weeks away, and I am starting to feel a little bit anxious! But it will be amazing! I should also be receiving my predicted grades for UCAS in the next couple of days, which I am not too worried about as the end of years went well, which I was quite proud of because I did put a lot of work in, especially for further maths, for which I think I did every past paper in existence! I also have a cookery course to attend over summer for a week, a bit random I know, but that might be useful for university.
All I can say is, come on summer!
