Sunday, 12 June 2016

Things I'm looking forward to.

Having finished my exams on Friday, I can finally think about pleasant things I'm looking forward to. And there is plenty of those, since I have exciting times ahead.

Mr Magic's visit
After weeks of waiting, he is finally coming, so we can celebrate my finishing of exams and spend some time together. This will be my rest time. Time of joyous bouncing around, long night talks and other shenanigans. It's a highlight of my post-finals period and I'm so excited for it.

Moving to the Isle of Wight
I've dreamt about living on the Isle of Wight and I'm so happy that I got allocated to the school there. It will be fantastic to live in such a beautiful part of the world, with miles of beaches, charming coastal walks, the Benedictines of St Cecilia, the Dinosaur Island, Isle of Wight Zoo and the sea all around. And I'm really looking forward to finding my own place, moving the furniture, arranging my posters and pictures, finding out my nearest shop and so on. It's completely new life waiting ahead now.

Summer Institute
This is a vital part of Teach First training and will probably be super-intense. I'm a little apprehensive at the moment. My Maths is not up to scratch quite yet, but I have almost three months to work on it. I'm really looking forward to meeting like-minded people who also believe that every child should receive excellent education. I'll be visiting my school for a week and it will be a great opportunity to get used to  it, settle a bit and work out how that place is run.

Now I'm off to my law picnic followed by drinks and Finalists' Dinner. It's time to celebrate!
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Friday, 10 June 2016

Finals in tweets and pictures.













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Tuesday, 7 June 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.
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Sunday, 5 June 2016

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.
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