A Day in the Life of an Oxford Scholastica Student: Graduation and Ceilidh

Hello! My name is Mehar, and I am a high school student from India who previously attended the Medicine residential summer school at the Oxford Scholastica Academy.

My time at Oxford was magnificent, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget a single detail about the time I spent there. I still remember my room, Activity Coordinators, friends, tutor, and of course the beautiful campus of the Blavatnik School of Government and Said Business School, where our classes took place. While all of the days I spent at Oxford Scholastica hold a special place in my heart, the final Friday (the last day) will stay with me forever.

The Big Day

I remember how nervous I felt before the final day arrived! My friends and I were returning from Oxford Scholastica’s Got Talent on the Thursday evening, talking about how excited we were for the last day and how jam packed our schedule was. 

A productive morning

I awoke early on the Friday, full of energy and excitement. As usual, I got ready and headed to the kitchen for the already laid-out breakfast. I then returned to my room for independent study time and started work on my final piece of homework for the course. I was attending the Medicine summer school and our final task was to accumulate all we had learnt throughout the course into one presentation. 

Later on, my friend and I headed on over to the Blavatnik School of Government for our final class. We arrived half an hour early, so we sat in the café located in the building, sipping on coffee and eating the most scrumptious cheese and tomato croissants.

We then entered our classroom for the last time. Everyone gave their absolute best for the final day! Our tutor expressed how proud they were of us, and we were all very happy with how we had blossomed over the course of the summer. As we left class for the final time, I almost shed a tear as I recalled all the fond memories I’d made in the building.

Afterwards, my friends and I decided to go to a place we’d visited many times over the last two weeks: the Donburi Inn at the Oxford Covered Market. I highly recommend it; their Chinese food is the absolute best! They were so busy some days that we couldn’t find a place to sit. After an amazing lunch, we headed back to our dorms and spent about an hour getting ready for the main event – graduation!

The main event

We finally reached the Saïd Business School for our graduation ceremony. After meeting our parents, we all got settled inside the hall according to which course we’d studied. As the ceremony progressed, Lavinia – the Co-Director – called each student from each course to the stage, where we shook our tutor’s hand, certifying the completion of our academic journey at the Oxford Scholastica Academy. Afterwards, some students from each course took to the stage to speak about their personal experience during the summer school, which was the perfect way to end the ceremony!

After the ceremony, we headed to the garden, where we, along with our parents, were treated to a delicious BBQ dinner. We laughed, spent time together, took tons of pictures, roamed the halls of school, ate cup after cup of ice cream, and even shed a tear or two.

Dancing the night away

Afterwards, we went to a building where we all put on our dancing shoes to learn the traditional dance of Ceilidh. There were live performers, playing instruments and singing, who guided us step by step to make sure all of us were dancing perfectly in tune and having loads of fun. I do remember that most people had taken their shoes off, as all the dancing had given them horrible shoe bites!

We then headed back to our dorms for the last night. We were given some free time before curfew to hang out with each other. My friend’s parents had given her ramen, so we spent our last night together in the common room making and eating ramen and ice cream, and talking and crying together because we knew that we’d never be able to experience this exact moment again. We laughed and cried, but had loads of fun together.

That was my last Friday at Oxford Scholastica – one which was filled with a rollercoaster of emotions. It was the best of times and parting was bitter sweet.