“I know of no pleasure deeper than that which comes from contemplating the natural world and trying to understand it.”

— Sir David Attenborough

Hi, and welcome to my first ever blog. I thought my first post should be a little bit about me before I get into the good stuff, so here it goes!

I’m 20 years old, and I’m a marine biology student. I’m in my 2nd year at the University of Hull and I couldn’t enjoy and praise my course enough. My passion and interest in the ocean and all things fishy started when I was a young girl and as most girls I watched the hit show, “H2o: Just add water.” The show is set in Australia and focuses around 3 friends who share the same secret of being a mermaid, very cliché but it’s a classic. But it wasn’t the fact they were mermaids that attracted me, it was the different shades of ocean blue. The light shining through the water as much as it can, the fish calmLY swimming next to each other, the dolphins whistling, the waves crashing. Everything about the ocean is mesmerising, I can’t even find the words to describe how relaxed yet excited it makes me.

During my time at secondary school, I was never great with science but I tried my hardest. It wasn’t enough to some people so, come my GCSE’s I wanted to study “Applied Science” which was the step down from Triple, and the step up from BTEC. I applied for it, and waited. I got called into my science teachers room, along with some other students and was told that we’re not intelligent enough to study anything other than BTEC science. I was hurt, as any other 15 year old would be, but I sucked it up and did it. I won’t lie though, it knocked my confidence, as it would. I continued to college, and decided to study another BTEC course, this time in Creative Media. I was too embarrassed at what my teacher had said prior, so I went with a course that would be easy to get a grade in. Towards the end of the course, life got too much for me and I ended up hating my college course. I cried for hours to my parents about how I didn’t have a future, and I didn’t know what I was going to do once this course had finished. It was when my mum mentioned to me that I could study marine biology at university, via a foundation year. And of course due to my past with science I didn’t think it was possible so I cried even more. My mum went out of her way to look for a university that would accept me with the UCAS credits I was predicated to achieve and that’s when we discovered Hull Uni. I was offered a place on the foundation course, as long as I got the right amount of credits, (which I did, obviously) and so now that brings me here. I’ve spent almost 3 years at university, stepping closer to my dream of becoming a marine biologist and I couldn’t be more grateful that this opportunity was offered to me, this is the happiest I’ve been in my life and I hope for more happy years doing what I love. Looking at the ocean, and the organisms in it and hopefully helping to educate people on the way about them and the problems the ocean itself faces due to human involvement.

I really hope you enjoy learning with me, and hope that you support me on my journey as you’re a big part of it, as a reader of my fun yet very cool facts.

Thank you,

Bella