Exam diary:In a lull between exams, Miroslawa Goreckatakes time to reflect on change in her native Poland

It's not the best thing about being a Pole in Ireland, but having the third day of the Leaving Certificate off is still a good deal. While my Irish friends went off to sit their Gaeilge, I went walking on the beach in the sunshine.

It would have been a beautiful day, if it wasn't for the little storm cloud in my head. The horizon was just a line to be measured, the kite in the sky was four triangles, the old man on the shore was Pythagoras.

All I can think about is geometry and it doesn't go well with a sunny day.

I'm worried about Monday because I was so confident about Maths Paper 1 and it really was much harder than I thought it would be.

I expect a sleepless weekend looking at the stars and measuring the distances between them.

Today the Junior Certificate students took their Civil, Social and Political Education exam. We have a similar subject in Poland and I miss it because it is so interesting to learn about the politics of your own country.

In schools in Poland we even learn how to become president! It's very good career guidance, I think.

Politics in Poland is very entertaining. I was born in the year of freedom, the year that Polish communism came to an end.

Although I have no memory of queuing for meat or bread or petrol, it is part of who I am because my parents and older relatives lived through it so recently.

Now Poland is full of mobile phones and designer labels and all the stress that money brings. Something has been lost, certain values and safe old ways, but I suppose that is the price of freedom.

Consider Jan Grzebska, a Polish man who came out of a 19-year coma this week. He went into a coma before I was born, then woke up to find Poland democratic and free (and 11 grandchildren whom he had never met).

President George Bush arrived in my country yesterday, I'm told. Anything that attracts interest in Poland is a good thing. We have very high unemployment and we need to develop our economy.

I'm not a big fan of George Bush, but if he can help my country to grow, that's a good thing.

My mother, who had gone back to Poland for a few weeks, has returned to feed and take care of me during the exams. It's great to be well cared for at a stressful time like this.

She's also rescuing all of my plants, which I have allowed to die. I have no feeling for plants and it worries me. I have to tackle the ecology section in Tuesday's biology paper and the very idea makes me want to sleep.

Luckily, as a doctor, I will not have to treat plants, although I suppose I might have to treat with plants. People are very interested in holistic medicine in the western world now.

Perhaps I would be better getting my second choice, law. I could be a campaigning lawyer, a champion of victim's rights.

I would be no friend to the young offender. I think young people get away with far too much in this world.

"To be free we need to be slaves to the law," someone said.

I don't remember who it was. Probably Pythagoras.

• Miroslawa Goreckais a student at Drogheda Grammar School. Her exam diary returns on Tuesday.