Counting Down the Last Hurrahs!

• 8 weeks until exams start
• 69 days until exams finish (10 weeks from yesterday) and I finish school!

But who's counting?

Over the past few weeks I've finished prac exams, handed in my final WL essays and submitted my final Bio pracs. Only 1 more IA to finish - D&T, which will not be as stressful as finishing art - I know most of the art students didn't sleep last night because their folio work is due in today. Fortunately, D&T is less...demanding.

I've also participated in qualies (qualifications for athletics) for the last time on Wednesday. Qualies is not particularly hard, and if it's nice weather, can be a lot of fun. It involves competing in events to win house points that will be totalled after Aths weekend (and you can be sure that my house - even if we're "dynamite" - will finish last not only in the events but in the tally, which is why it was incredibly exciting for us to win the house 50m shuttle relay. Small event for everyone else, big deal for us). Not that I'm particularly sad to be finishing qualies (I know I won't be ecstatic about competing next week, which I will have to do because we're such a small house, and even though we have 56 students, somehow no more than 30 of us can compete, due to "sickness" and "injuries.")

Even though I'm really excited about leaving (did someone say 10 weeks?!), I know I'm going to miss this place. I've been thinking about what I said, and I think I've put my finger on why I'm going to miss this place with an ache. Because it's home. Not in a corny, "home away from home" sentiment, because truly, this place has come to mean quite a lot to me. I've been here for 3 years (+ 1 in the High Country), loved life in this boarding house and made so many gorgeous friends and people. I won't deny it's been hard - what with nearly of my close friends leaving, for one reason or another, over the course of my 4 years here, stealing in the boarding house, my own year level depleted and divided. But the good times - and the great times - make up for all of that. Yr 10 Timezone outing, Christmas Balls, Int Dinner, yr 12 dinner outing, Miss VC-J's party, 17th birthday dinner...the list goes on. I can't speak from experience, but having discussed the matter with my grandparents (before they left on Tuesday), I think part of the reason for missing this place so is the simple nature of boarding school, such that you are forced to endure or experience it and create such memories and relationships. University is less restrictive in terms of freedom, boarding arrangements, attending class etc, and because of this doesn't foster the same sense of family and closeness; it's up to you to make that effort. Although it all comes down the individual, and how you make the most of whatever environment you're living in - boarding school's not for everyone, and neither is uni. But I'm looking forward to university nonetheless, wherever I end up!

Ha, listen to me get all sentimental. I haven't even left yet! I bet I cry when I leave...but not until after, because it never hits me until after.

Although as they say: "Don't cry because it is over; smile because it has happened."

x
Just a girl