Lauren Greenebean: An amazing start to the rest of my summer

When the results for DCU's first year exams came out, the solace that came with passing the majority of my exams was quickly outlived by that one resit that I was due to carry out in August. While my friends celebrated all of their passes, I was met with the fact that my summer still really hadn't begun. Whenever I went out, in the back of my mind there was always this niggling thought that I should be studying for that one exam. Before my resit came, I wondered if what happened to me was probably worse than doing the exam itself and failing, because I could've just went in and got it over with. During my exam week, I decided to treat myself to a spice bag to commemorate passing the halfway mark. I'm not sure if I had food poisoning or what but I wasn't able to leave my bedroom, let alone my house. Anyway coming up to this resit I got super anxious because I was afraid that I was expected to literally ace this exam after been given weeks and weeks to study. Not the case at all, I sat on my computer printing out pages and pages worth of answers for questions that weren't guaranteed to come up. Days before the exam, my brain literally started to shut down and so I figured that if I did anymore it would probably do more harm then help.

When it came to exam itself, it was completely the opposite of what I was expecting. Everyone else in there was in the same boat as me. There was no embarrassment. We all just wanted to get in there and finish what should've been done months ago. Honestly, I can say that resits are so much more relaxed than the actual exams themselves. Literally all of the apprehension and anxiety that I had conjured up waned as soon as I walked into the room.

It appears my exam acted as some kind of defibrillator. I've attempted to do something with every day that I have because I've only got from now until the end of September,before college starts again, to pour four months of summer fun into one. And this week, notably this weekend, has been the perfect beginning to all that.

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I was always afraid that when I left school I would fall out of touch with most if not all of my friends, not because I wanted it to happen or anything of the sort but I was just always given the impression that that's what happens when you go to college. I literally could not have been more wrong. Going to college and realizing how hard it was, for me, to make friends made me appreciate the ones I already had, all the more.

Aoife Traynor has become one of my closest friends the past year and I think that the fact we only see each other every two or so weeks has made that happen. She is never in a dull mood and every moment spent with her has you peeing your pants and laughing your head off. One of the things I admire most about this friend is how level-headed she is. No matter what the circumstance, she's up for it. On Saturday evening, Myself, Aoife and my Boyfriend had one of the chillest, like most authentic, evenings in a long time. Aoife never acts like the 'third wheel', which is so important to me because myself and Patrick try our hardest to never do that. Everything with Aoife is genuine.

On my list of people to spend a night drinking and eating wings with (in this case not wings because I was way too hungover for that), it's these two.

Also If I haven't raved enough about how I love being able to spend time with my friend and my boyfriend at the SAME time, they both did equally as shit as each other in a best-friend v boyfriend quiz. Love. That.

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I don't want to depreciate what I've said earlier, but I'm about to talk about one of the best days that I've had in a long time.

On Sunday, the 13th of August, I spent the bulk of the day walking around The National Botanic Gardens, hand in hand, with my favorite person in the entire world. I'm always keen to visit the Gardens and I hadn't done it in maybe a year or more. So I decided that Patrick would be the victim that I drag out to Glasnevin, forced to walk through multiple glasshouses and rose gardens with me in tow. With a bag full of snacks and obviously the funniest and most witty girlfriend ever as company, I like to think that he enjoyed himself rather a lot. That's if you disregard the fact that he walked into a cactus and made it out to be the equivalent of a bullet wound.

There's not a lot that I can say other than I walked around one of the most beautiful gardens with the most amazing person ever. I won't dote because that's annoying and I'm sure I told him that enough yesterday. Instead I'll more or less fill the rest of this post with dazzling photographs of Patrick and flora. A surprisingly marvelous duo.