Here to stay!

Having recently completed my studies at Sheffield Hallam University, I thought I’d reflect on why moving away matters, what makes Sheffield a popular destination for young people, the influences on my first three years in the city and why I'm here to stay.

They say that your school years are the best years of your life! Well…that certainly wasn’t the case for me. Apart from in a sporting context, I floated through school in such a way that deep down I always knew that the consequences of my actions would come back to bite me before I could leave. Sure enough they did. Furthermore, like many, I was bullied throughout my school years for being even so slightly different to the popular kids and as a result often shut myself away, focusing instead on achieving calm and acceptance through my sporting endeavours, not that it really helped.

Without a shadow of doubt, in my experience, my university years have been the best years of my life. And they have been in Sheffield. I don’t quite know what exactly it was that made me up-sticks from suburban southern monotony for the 200 mile or so journey north to South Yorkshire, passing many people making the reverse trip, but I will never regret doing so. 

Arriving in Sheffield, certainly for a reasonably ruralised, impressionable young man, can leave one bewildered. So many cars, so many people, so many things going on. And it’s only Sheffield! I imagine my head would have exploded if I’d been left alone to fend for myself in London. But then maybe it wouldn’t, the only way to discover is to do it. University, or in fact just leaving home, moving away, is one of the greatest adventures a young person can have. Sure I didn’t speak to anyone for the first three days, didn’t know where anything was and took time to get used to the throngs of people walking past my window every morning. However, the most important thing to do, as I did and as everyone often says, is get through those first couple of days, then things become easier, you meet people, you do things and you begin to shape the person you will become.

Now… ‘It’s only Sheffield’. Sheffield is the 4^th biggest city in the country, it has a student population of 60,000, it has clean streets, open parks and shops, restaurants and mansions that wouldn’t look out of place in the finest cities of the world, ‘only’ doesn’t do it justice. Yet much like those great cities, it also has other areas too. Throughout my 3 years in the city I have covered most of its area and outlying suburbs, it is a place of contrasts in almost every category possible yet that is probably its greatest strength. It’s rich and poor, red & black and blue & white, over-crowded and sparse, clean and dirty, multi-faith, multi-ethnicity. In short, Sheffield is a melting pot of the world’s cultures and people, all which make for an eye-opening and encouraging experience.

However, these contrasts wouldn’t be possible without the key cog in the machine: the people who live there. Sheffielders, like most Yorkshire men I have met, do conform in certain ways to the traditional stereotypes given to them, yet in so many other ways they don’t. It’s true, most are not afraid to say what they feel, call a spade a spade and so on but that makes them honest and open. After all straight, honest conversations and friendships are the most rewarding. They are also funny, with a humour and wit that really, given appreciation and understanding, is rarely bettered anywhere in the country. Sheffielders, or certainly those I’ve met, are warm, welcoming and generous. Make friends with a Sheffielder and they will always have your time and your back, this trait I have seldom discovered from my 20 years of life in the south, but then that might just be me. A final characteristic that I’ve found in Sheffielders and most northern folk, which differs from most other regional populations, is the capacity to just ‘get on and do it’. Whatever their ‘it’ maybe, in work, social life, sport, through hardships, the good times, no matter what they are burdened with, the ‘get on with it’ spirit resonates throughout the city. It's encouraging, enlightening and rubs off on all those who want it to.

These Sheffielders have made important incisions into my university life, from the receptionists on the front desk of my student halls to the landlords of the student houses I later lived in and from my university tutors to my work colleagues and sporting teammates. 

Speaking of which!

That’s another thing that Sheffield does better than most other places, sport. The city is so well situated in the middle of the country that it attracts sportsmen and women from the outlying regions and counties. Many an Olympic champion have either trained in Sheffield or called the city their home. Sheffield’s finest daughter, Jess Ennis, typifies the cities sporting ambition whilst also representing all that makes Sheffield the city that it is. Humble, understated, hard-working and talented. Despite her elevation to sporting greatness, Ennis’ roots still obviously matter and she can often be seen getting involved with and competing in grassroots sporting contests throughout the city. I can’t imagine a finer representative for the city than her.

Robert Fripp, once of King Crimson and long time inhabitant of the town where I grew up, once said that it takes 20 years to have the experiences in Wimborne that occur within 6 months of living in a city. He certainly isn’t wrong. Now I know Sheffield isn’t New York, the city Fripp was talking of, but it’s still a world away from Wimborne. I won’t go into detail because I’m sure my experiences pail into insignificance when compared with many of my peers but that’s not the point of this article. The point is, moving to a city, away from parental influence and further enough away to not have to depend on parents for weekly washing duties, allows for the opening up of the young mind, our experiences define who we are and what we become. I do have to thank my parents for accepting my plea to be away from them for most of the year, I wouldn’t be writing this if they hadn’t. They understood that it was my time to become the person I want to be.

Sheffield is a popular destination for young people to attend university and it isn’t hard to see why. Alongside it’s geographical positioning, which makes most of the country accessible within a 2 hour drive, it’s size is also an important factor. It’s big but not massive, bustling but not sprawling, the university quarter and most of the surrounding student living areas are all within a small area, on the cities south-western side and make most journeys easily achievable on foot. In a completely different respect, Sheffield has a ‘vibe’ (horrible word I know but I’m struggling to find a better) which again I have not experienced anywhere else I’ve lived for a prolonged period. Maybe it is the fact that so many young people flock to the city that such a vibe exists but it pulls you in, if you’re willing, and keeps you hooked. Even when I’ve been away, that vibe has acted as a homing beacon, calling me back and I have always yielded to its powers. To use another phrase of the modern age, Sheffield is a place that is ‘happening’. Its bars, restaurants, theatres, clubs and other social places are the envy of much of the North of England. It has money and isn’t afraid to splash it. The city has a style all of its own, a style very much dictated by the young. I am one of that number, although I highly doubt I’ve impacted on that style but none the less, it has had an impact on me. Walking the streets, you feel that style but you also feel the history. Sheffield attracts the new, young and exciting whilst also catering for the traditional, historical and wise, something which most southern towns, cannot.

Anyone can go to Sheffield, to university and come away feeling as if it was just a fleeting visit, a small speed bump on the highway of life and not quite appreciate  what it quite was that they were experiencing. To experience the city at its best, and life in general, you have to be open to letting yourself experience all that the city and its people offer, obviously with an understanding of the consequences. I made that promise to myself on the day I arrived, suitcase in hand, not knowing anyone or anything. I doubt my old self would recognise the person I have become. I’ve made friends for life, experienced the buzz of Bramall Lane on match-day, West Street on a Saturday night and Ecclesall Road on assignment deadline day. I’ve also experienced the peace and tranquillity of the Peak District, Abbeydale Park, the Botanical Gardens and the university library on a Thursday morning. I’ve travelled abroad to study, whilst also studying in a fifth floor bolthole flat above the traffic on Shoreham Street. I’ve worked in a warehouse in the vast expanse of industrial lands on the North side whilst also having sat back and watched the sunset from the rocky outcrops off the Ringinglow Road. My experiences have been diverse, shared by thousands as well as being distinctly personal. They’ve shaped my early twenties and undoubtedly shaped my future too. I think that’s why I’ve fallen for the place so, because it is where, certainly for the foreseeable, my future lies and I can’t think of a better place for it to do so.