Finals in tweets and pictures.

One down, eight to go #finals

— Katarzyna Zielinska (@katzielinska7) May 30, 2016

Second exam gone fine despite migraine and a ridiculous amount of painkillers I had to consume in the last 24h #finals #iamblessed

— Katarzyna Zielinska (@katzielinska7) May 31, 2016

Another exam done. Was actually fun to write plus I had time for some doodling #finals pic.twitter.com/7xRxpOXSpA

— Katarzyna Zielinska (@katzielinska7) June 1, 2016

Ugh, at least I don't have to do a land exam ever again #finals

— Katarzyna Zielinska (@katzielinska7) June 2, 2016

Finals isn't about knowledge of the law any more. It's now a physical endurance test.

— Riane Trotman (@riane_trotman) June 2, 2016

#finals day 6. The state of my pink carnation symbolises my physical and mental exhaustion. 3 more to go! pic.twitter.com/ngoxzodZTy

— Katarzyna Zielinska (@katzielinska7) June 4, 2016

Juris exam in a nutshell: there's a general duty to obey the law of a reasonably just legal system & law should not enforce all of morality

— Katarzyna Zielinska (@katzielinska7) June 6, 2016

#finals nearly over, two more to go! Woohoo!

— Katarzyna Zielinska (@katzielinska7) June 6, 2016

#finals nearly over, two more to go! Woohoo!

— Katarzyna Zielinska (@katzielinska7) June 6, 2016

Red carnation day finally. In four hours #finals will be over! #hooray pic.twitter.com/8wcMQwTKuh

— Katarzyna Zielinska (@katzielinska7) June 10, 2016

Made it to the end of #finals!!! pic.twitter.com/5YV3gMN3zc

— Katarzyna Zielinska (@katzielinska7) June 10, 2016

Time flies: my fours years at Oxford are nearly over.

It's strange to think that in a couple of weeks I will no longer be a student. Real life will begin, with bills, banking, weekly food shopping, waking up for work and being a responsible adult. It's both exciting and scary at the same time.

On numerous occasions I complained about Oxford. We do not get many contact hours, my degree is judged exclusively on the basis of nine exams crammed into two weeks at the end of my final year, Oxford is hugely male-dominated and mental health issues are not tackled enough.

At the same time, I will be sad to leave. I will miss Oxford so much. 

Oxford has taught me to be independent. Not only in my studies, since I had to find my own way through endless reading lists and stacks of books, but also in life. I've learnt how to deal with people, how to work in a team, how to care for my friends and how to care for myself. It's been a very fruitful four years. I've met so many wonderful people. I really hope that they will remain a  part of my life, even though we will be all over the place.

I'm immensely thankful for these four years. I'm thankful for each opportunity I had to challenge myself. I'm thankful for my fantastic friends. I'm thankful for the most wonderful man in the world.

Veni. Vidi. Amavi.

I'm starting my Teach First Summer Institute at the end of this month. I will be moving to the Isle of Wight in August and this is something I dreamt of for a long time. I didn't mind where exactly I would work, but I really wanted to by the sea and, well, you cannot get much closer to the sea than live on an island, right? I suppose the title of my blog will gain a new meaning, I will truly be on a small island then.

Almost there.

I've done six exams in the past six days and, gosh, I have enough! Thank god there's only three more left now, including a short juris exam and my favourite PIL.

My body is at the brink of exhaustion and I'm so looking forward to being free again (for a week, haha, but better this than nothing at all). Waking up every day at 6am is not fun, but I'm slowly getting used to it, since it will be my routine once I start working at school. A friend of mine commented that these finals are no longer a test of knowledge of the law, but a physical endurance test and this is really true. We are all just tired at this point, so no wonder that examiners' reports for subjects examined at the end always voice a disappointment at the standard of the scripts. Well, no wonder really, since you subject us to so much pressure in such a short space of time. But at least it will be over soon, it's much better than if exams stretched across a good few week as some people's do.

I need to say that I am very proud of myself that I survived last week and that I am in a decent mental state. Given that I thought about suspending my studies, I've made an incredible progress, thanks to all the support that I've received.

And I've learnt two things from this emotional roller-coaster that I've been on in the past couple of months. First, you need to really believe in yourself. Whatever happens, just do your best, push through and keep believing that it will somehow work out in the end. Second, don't be scared to ask for help. Don't be afraid to depend on somebody. Make this leap of faith and open yourself up. Because others are there for you, you just need to talk to them, since sometimes it is not at all obvious that you need help (unless you are sobbing in the library, yep, that happened too). Somewhat I'm even happy that it was so difficult to get through. I have even more reasons to be proud. And a lot to talk about.

I'm almost there. Five more days.

Staying healthy and body image.

I must admit that I haven't been particularly kind to my body recently. Studying for final exams is not conducive to healthy eating and regular physical activity, which sadly started to show, causing me serious body image issues. Mr Magic does his best to make sure I still feel attractive, but there are limits even to what he can accomplish in this department. 

Now that it is almost over, I will hopefully come back on track. Swimming is on the agenda, especially that we've signed up for a canal swim in Copenhagen in August, which means I actually need to train myself to swim 2km. It's 80 lengths and it's a lot. But hopefully in three months time I will be fit enough to jump into a cold canal and do it in under an hour (fingers crossed).

I was quite keen on running, but actually I think I'd rather do Zumba, in particular if I am to do it on my own, it's more fun. Unless I can find somebody who is willing to get down to my slow running pace.

Healthy eating is my other goal, since I'll be feeding myself with mostly carbs for the past two months. I have such a sweet tooth it's unbelievable. But celery and carrots with hummus are also nice, so I will just stick with those. And fruit, especially strawberrries, to satisfy my cravings. So as soon as the exam are completely over, there will be no more chocolate and pecan popcorn, veggie percies and other such things. Eh, it won't be easy.

I'm fully aware that I shouldn't have too much issues with how I look like, it's not as if I've gone four sizes up, but I would like to feel really good in my own skin and I don't at the moment. But there is a lot I can do to change it. And this is great, that I have some control over it.