It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

…Which is incredibly disorienting.  First my boyfriend gave me a Christmas Present (yes in February, I know, I know) and now…snow? In IRELAND? In…EAST Ireland? My My My.

I actually did a double take this morning when I flung  open my curtains. I always thought double-takes were merely to add comedic effect in slapstick comedies, but no no, I actually stood there gaping out the window at the snow layered on the rooftops before running- still in my towel and dripping from the shower- to my whole family cackling “It’s Christmas!”

Today could have been Christmas Day. I overindulged in eating, I wrapped up cosy and warm, I bounced around with a smile on my face, but instead of opening presents I had my English mock.

Ah yes, Paper 1. I went in to it saying ” well at least it’s the kind of exam you can’t really prepare for, I’ll be able to wing it”. I came out of it saying “Well at least paper 2 is the kind of exam you prepare for, so I’ll know exactly what to write. Not that it was bad as such. No, it was definitely not bad, it just wasn’t the sort of exam you’d read back over and exclaim “Yes! Truly this is work deserving of nothing but an A1!” it was more the sort of exam you’d read and say “while I found the endless pop culture references entertaining, how did she manage to write so much and say so little?”

I think I may have slightly misinterpreted the meaning of “Personal Essay”. What I took it to mean was “write about yourself, your experiences, your views and your life”.  What every single other person read was “craft a well-constructed thoughtful essay in which you outline your views on this topic”. Consequently my essay was full of Me Me Me, I I I, My My My. Self possessed? Never. The title just seemed appealing, and I thought I’d be forgiven for coming across so self-absorbed by virtue of the fact that it was a personal essay.

I know I mocked every person who had ever written a Letter To the Editor in my last blog post, well guess what I did today? Yep, you guessed it! Though it was purely for the exam, the only eyes that will read it will be the examiner’s, my teacher’s and mine. No editor will ever receive it. Any smugness I felt about quoting Voltaire in my functional writing quickly dissipated after I found out that my friend- who had been sitting beside me- coincidentally chose all the same questions as I did, and also used the same quote in the same question. I do hope nobody thinks it’s a bit dodgy- it was purely coincidental!

I came home this afternoon intending to revise Sequences and Series for maths paper 1 on Wednesday. All the stress of the mocks meant that I couldn’t sleep for a while last night and caused my left eye to start swelling up today during the exam so I felt a bit wrecked and went to bed. Unfortunately my dad doesn’t seem to realise that a darkened room is an international sign of “sleepy person within- do not wake” and disturbed me before I could properly nap. Sequences and Series got a quick look over, as did my Longley Essay (if Bishop or Longley don’t come up tomorrow I’m royally scuppered!) and some Macbeth quotes.

Now all I can do is sleep and hope the the Powers That be at Examcraft are kind to us tomorrow.