The Rear View Mirror: From Honor to Dis-Honor Student

By Jill Messina

 Editor’s Note:  Jill Messina is a recent UCSB graduate.  She is contributing a series of weekly columns on her experiences during her time at UCSB. 

            I have excelled in academics throughout my life.  I was awarded a full tuition waiver at the first university I attended. When I transferred schools, I had an untarnished 4.0 G.P.A. After completing my first term in Santa Barbara, my grades absolutely plummeted, so much so that I hid it from my parents with great care. Apparently, living in Isla Vista is not exactly conducive to academic excellence.   Actually, living in I.V. and using the term “excellence” in any phrase (not associated with the use of bong) may be oxymoronic.  

            I had received my first ‘F’ during my first term at UCSB.  Prior to living in I.V, I hadn’t received anything less than a ‘B’ during my entire academic career.  As I recall, I didn’t even show up to the final. I remember partying hard the night before finals, and after I managed to scrape myself out of bed the morning after, I noticed my car was blocked in our communal driveway by two other cars.  One the cars was familiar, the other was not.  The thought of locating, awakening, and rallying both automobile owners was way too much for me to handle at eight in the morning in my hung over state, and hence no final.

            So why was I able to excel at my first university, but not at my second? I lived in a freshman dorm during my first year of college, surrounded by your typical rowdy bunch of young, college students. So why wasn’t I able to hack it, academically speaking, in I.V.? I couldn’t possibly blame it all on the poor parking situation… My parents would be having none of that.

The truth is, it wasn’t just my being M.I.A. at the final that culminated in my big fat ‘F’ that quarter, it also had everything to do with what led up to that point. I always felt that there was about zero privacy in Isla Vista. Neighbors were stacked on top of neighbors, apartments stacked on top of apartments. I don’t recall getting one good night’s sleep in I.V. There always seemed to be someone hollering or music blaring. I attribute another big part of my downfall to the constant partying scene notorious in I.V. My roommates’ philosophy was that if there was a party keeping us awake or distracting us from our studies, we might as well join in on the festivities. There was a definitely a strong pressure from peers to party hard at all cost – not just the occasional Friday night part but a constant drumbeat of partying.    

            So, along with the psycho roommates I had to contend with that first quarter, run-ins with the law, and the constant partying, I suppose it’s no wonder I was a less than a golden student.  And the truth is, I found living in I.V. exhausting.  Emotionally and physically speaking, there’s just not much rest to be had there. There’s something about that place that drained me in a way that is difficult to articulate.

Ultimately, I ended up redeeming myself, academically speaking, for the last three years of my attendance at UCSB, of course by that time I had enough good sense to move downtown…