Bill Bryson once wrote that “Exeter is not an easy place to love.” Clearly he never spent a summer’s day sipping a cold beer at Double Locks, never went on a perilous road trip across Dartmoor in a hallmate’s clapped-out Land Rover, or even dared to indulge in a spot of Sambuca-fuelled Rameoke after twelve hours editing in the Exeposé office.
When arriving at university one unseasonably warm Sunday afternoon in September 2010 I could never have guessed just how much I would come to love Exeter, its quirks and the experiences I would get to have here. I’d like to say that in those three years I’ve given a lot to my degree, and to this paper which you hold in your hands, but the salient truth is that Exeter has given me a great deal more in return.
Although spending my first year living half an hour away from my lecturers, on a distant campus occupied by the most banterous of sports scientists, was admittedly a chore, I have somehow managed to enjoy just about every second since.
Exeter has changed a lot since those heady days, but my reasons for loving this city have not. It’s in the small things: taking full advantage of Riley’s £1-a-pint ‘student’ nights, sipping homemade sangria on Dawlish beach after that last summer exam, the scramble for pizza on Exeposé press days, RAM curly fries for lunch, missing lectures because a juicy scandal worthy of an Exeposé front page was developing.
As graduation and (un)employment loom, I can now look back on my three years of Exeter with pride and contentment. It’s definitely time for me to move on, but I will always look back on my years at this university as a very happy time.
Thomas Payne
exeposedev 