Last year I made a post like this as well, so I thought I may as well make it into a tradition (If you do something twice it becomes a tradition). Last year it seemed kind of easy to write, but this year it seems like it might be a good way of summing up a year which has left me a very different person than when I started it. It’s also been a year defined, in various ways, by Oxford. I feel much more exposed now, writing about things that actually happened in my life, than I do when I write vaguely introspective things.
The Things I Won’t Forget: Learning more about class and how the other half live in four muddy, drunken days on the Isle of Wight than thousands of pages of politics and sociology. Applying to Oxford; I’ve learnt my lesson and suffice to say I’ll never do it again –though being interviewed at Wadham was brilliant – I can’t wait to be back!
The Relationships: Adrien: the boy that I rather accidentally encountered, and who probably shaped the past year or two of my life far more than I’d ever care to admit. We dated for all of 6 months, but it was him who told me which Oxford college to apply for, and the person who ultimately convinced me I wanted it. I suppose then, that it’s ironic we split up because he was off to read Lit Hum at New College, Oxford. By the end we were a ridiculous couple with our matching Acne jackets, jeans and shirts. I can’t pretend that I don’t miss him occasionally.
The Best Days: The Wadham interviews; they were fantastic fun. The day I got my Oxford offer – I don’t think I’ve ever cried from happiness before, but suffice to say I did upon reading that letter. Though walking into the living room tear-streaked to tell my parents made them think something all together different had happened.
The Worst Days: I think the darkest days were the days as me and Adrien were breaking up – I dread to think how intolerable I was. How empty. Or how full of alcohol and cigarette smoke.
And if I may pick a single hour, then the hour on the train leaving Oxford was pretty dark. I think as that train sped away I genuinely believed that I’d never return to the dreaming spires, that I’d blown the dream and that it was time to remember what I liked about Bristol.
The Most Memorable Moment: Sat on my stairs, opening my Oxford letter. I think I’ll have to receive a marriage proposal before I forget that. Or maybe kissing Adrien for the first time; it seems only right that I should offer both the bitter and the sweet memories.
My Friends: I fear that I’ve been rather hard on my friends this year; I gave a lot to getting into Oxford, and I can’t express how patient so many people have been with me this year. Suffice to say I’ll miss them all in October.
My Birthday: Well, I had a family celebration on my actual birthday, and consequently went hungover to an English Literature exam. The other celebration was a house party that culminated in four of my friends having an orgy, and my then boyfriend throwing up.
The Holidays: Venice, Budapest, Bestival. They were all interesting in their own ways: I learnt that Venice is the worst city in the world to get drunk in. Really, just don’t do it, it will never end well in a city of canals and a ridiculous maze of streets. Budapest was lovely, I even survived the appalling fourty degree heat of August. And Bestival, well, that was weird - I’ve never been so acutely aware of my own place in the class system, but other than that it was fun, if not what I expected.
The School Year: Dominated mostly by a preoccupation with getting into Oxford. Thankfully I succeeded. And now I feel like I’m just waiting it out – a hiccup between the end of UCAS and the start of university, perhaps?
My New Year’s Resolutions: Well 2011 was an odd year of fulfilling my Resolutions – I got an Oxford offer and I didn’t buy anything from Topman. This year? Get the grades and actually go to Oxford, and get more motivated to work in college.
This has been repetitive. Roll on 2012.
