My name is Maria Lyth and in September I am going into my third and final year of studying English at the University of Hull.

People call Hull many things, rarely anything good and before I moved there for university, I was warned it wasn’t a very nice city and to be careful. I still have home friends who refuse to come and visit me at university because of their preconceived ideas about the city, but to anybody who shares their opinion I would say you are small minded and possibly pretentious, as what I call it, is home.

I did not wish to go to the University of Hull and like many of my friends I got in through clearing. Originally, I wished to go to Cambridge or Durham or follow in my brother’s footsteps and go to the University of Nottingham, mainly, although I don’t think I’ve ever admitted this out loud, to prove to everyone that I am as good as my brother. However, I suppose in a way I proved the opposite as I flunked my A levels, getting a D in my best subject; the subject I wished to study further- English Literature. Not to sound dramatic, but at the time I think results day was the worst day of my life, I genuinely sobbed, for multiple reasons (having a friend who sulked because he was one mark off an A* in further maths did not help) and as a girl who had her sights very much set on the University of Nottingham, without even an insurance option (a choice that I do not recommend) I was left questioning everything. After ringing many Universities and asking them for a place through clearing and hearing “no” and then the slamming down of a phone more times than a girl who dropped out of A level maths could count I was left with two yeses- Hull and Leicester. A girl I knew studied medicine at Leicester and had attended one of their open days and even though they asked for ABB I somehow talked my CCD self into a place there, but in just the short phone calls with them both, I had a feeling I belonged at Hull.

I do not wish to claim the university as perfect; when I first got placed in halls, I only had one flatmate, an extremely lonely, and for a short period of time, frightening experience- something that I do not think the university should have allowed to happen. I also faced many difficulties trying to arrange a year abroad which unfortunately I now cannot attend, mainly due to the extreme expense but partially due to the severe lack of support I ended up receiving from not just the University of Hull but also the university in Utrecht which I had gotten a place at. However, I do not know where I would be without the University of Hull. I have never felt the sense of belonging I feel when I am in Hull or the sense of longing I have for Hull and the people it has allowed me to meet when I am not there. I have not only fallen in love with the city and made many friends, but I have also been privileged enough to fall even further in love with literature and fall back in love with myself; discovering things about myself that I never before knew or at least had been long forgotten.  Before university I struggled with making the right sort of friends but since attending Hull, I feel more like myself than 16-year-old Maria could ever possibly imagine, and other people love me for that too.

I also think that the actual city of Hull is perfect for me, other than the fact they beat my team, Boro in the championship play-off final (don’t worry Hull I’m more annoyed at Southampton). It is a city and far bigger than any of my local towns at home which allowed me to have many new experiences. However, the university quarter offers a town like feel as everyone knows one another, which allowed me not to get too overwhelmed when I first moved there. Hull won the City of Culture award in 2017; a fact now engraved in my brain as one of my friends feels the constant need to comment on it at any opportunity (you know who you are) and honestly, I can see why. Hull is the only place in the country that does not have red telephone boxes, it has cream ones because the city ran its own independent telephone network; it was also the most bombed city in WW2 other than London and built itself back up using the very rubble off the ground; it is home to the largest aquarium in England- The Deep as well as one of the weirdest, and cheapest, clubs I’ve ever been to- Spiders, described in this article as ‘legendary’. It is also the hometown of one of my favourite comedians Lucy Beaumont, perhaps the true reason I went to Hull, as well as being largely associated with Paul Heaton; however, I am yet to see either of them in the flesh, though not through lack of trying. Hull, in my opinion, and the opinion of many others: is a hidden gem and has more culture and personality than most big cities could ever dream of. Hull is not just the only place in the country to have had cream telephone boxes, but also the only place in the country that could have encouraged me to be myself and love myself the way I now do.

To anyone debating choosing Hull this year, or in years to come, I would say choose Hull, choose the marina and Hull old town, choose spiders nights out, choose the museums quarter, choose the seven floor library, choose the deep, choose falling back in love with yourself; and just maybe, you too will meet a random Glaswegian on your fist night in Asylum who you now cannot live without and who will encourage you to include a trainspotting reference in your writing.

Thank you for reading, and thank you Hull, for everything.