C's Get Degrees
Prior to college, I didn’t really study. Whether it was going to average public schools, or knowing just enough to continue to get by, I didn’t really ever study. #humblebrag I guess.
Until my junior year of high school, I didn’t get a single C. It was all A’s, every once in awhile, a B.
That first C was in geometry. Up until then, difficult math wasn’t overly difficult. I didn’t have a graphing calculator (too expensive, my mom said). I really only wanted one to play a game called “Phoenix” on it. IYKYK. And if you don’t know, I Googled it for you.
I’m not blaming our finances on my C. I’m blaming the fact I didn’t know how to study. I would do fine in every class, retaining enough knowledge to do well in tests … until geometry. Oh, boy, then came trigonometry as a senior.
See, somewhere between junior and senior year, I kind of fell in love with writing. I had always been a reader, and then I remember being a subscriber to Sports Illustrated, reading the stories and thinking I’d like to do that.
Other than calculating batting averages, or earned run averages, or other similar “complicated” sports metrics (this is way before the nerds took over and ruined sports with their TI-83 calculators NOT playing Phoenix on it), I had an awakening that math wasn’t a long-term thing for me, and I could do these calculations and therefore do what was needed to be a sports writer.
Hence the F in trigonometry. Yes, an F.
I transferred out of that class and into theater to finish my senior year. Good thing I had already been accepted to a university.
And, boy, what a university it was. The nation’s only university on a beach. The nation’s number one party school. A fun, crazy sports program where fans threw tortillas during basketball games, and you had a pristine view of the Santa Ynez Mountains while breathing in the ocean air, catching a midweek baseball day game.
Yep, UC Santa Barbara was the place.
And when I went there, I knew exactly what I wanted to do once I graduated. Be a professional sports writer.
Only thing is, there wasn’t a journalism program to be found at UCSB. There were three sources of self-education on how to be a journalist: the student-run paper with no professor oversight, The Daily Nexus; the campus radio station, KCSB, with an adult program manager and that was about all she did — on air was up to you; and a small studio on campus that broadcast onto local Public Access television.
I did all three.
I called the Nexus from a hospital bed the second week of my freshman year (another story for another time), and said I was interested in writing. The assistant Sports Editor said something like Umm, you just worry about getting better. We ended up being groomsmen in each other’s weddings.
I broadcast sports games, and hosted a weekly sports radio show at various points on KCSB. And, in one glorious quarter, I was the lead sports anchor on Gaucho Scoreboard broadcast on local Santa Barbara television. I also used that platform to provide updates on my intramural C-league basketball games, as seen in this glorious clip below. Trust me, it’s worth the 2:48 of your time … remember — this was shown on actual television!
It was the newspaper that had its deepest hooks in me. And I was a bit blind to the fact that less than 20 years after I graduated newspapers would not be the titans I once knew them to be (most people had their blinders on).
I focused nearly all my free time on working for The Daily Nexus. I was named Sports Editor as a sophomore, and then Editor-in-Chief as a junior. I was 19 years old, and leading sixth-year seniors who were 22-23 years old. I was in over my skis, but I was soaking everything up, learning, and running a five-day-a-week paper that won numerous awards.
Like how I worked in high school, I was soaking up all that real-world knowledge about newspapers and journalism by doing it, rather than studying for it.
My college grades weren’t exactly stellar, but my overall experience was. I mean, c’mon, I was going to school on the beach, learning about a career that I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and could easily find a party any day of the week.
So, when asked by my parents about my grades, I replied: C’s get degrees.
Lord, did they hate that. And, as a parent now, I totally get it.
Your kid is at one of the best higher-ed universities in America (yes, despite all of the partying, beach life, and so forth, UCSB is a well-renowned university with multiple Nobel Prize-winning professors), and he’s doing justenough to get grades.
And while I had figured out how to study and pass my classes, I wasn’t going to be giving a valedictorian speech. So what? In all, though, I think I graduated with a 3.00 — not terrible for a person who was focused on two things: learning about sports writing and journalism, and making sure he didn’t miss out on life. As Matthew McConaughey says in Dazed and Confused, I was livin’, L-I-V-I-N.
It was definitely more about the experience than grinding at the library during week 6, when finals weren’t until week 10.
Which brings me (geez, finally, Hurst — you need a copy editor) to where I’m at as a parent today. Which is also where I think my parents were back in the high school vs. college days.
My oldest isn’t nailing “compaction math” in middle school. It’s titled that way because it’s about 18 months of math work and learning in a nine month school year.
Her last two tests left her in tears — both C’s — and she is figuring out how to study now. It’s a lot harder than when I was her age, admittedly, and we’re often helping her at night.
The thing is, she had a rough couple of years finishing elementary school. Cliques of kids, bullies, and so forth. And she kept her chin up, kept a smile on her face, and lapped pretty much everyone in every school subject.
Now in middle school, she has a great and supportive set of new friends. And all she is doing is making up for lost time. She is having fun, and being 12, but some of it is at expense of her focus in math.
As her teacher told us, She can get away with it in other classes because she’s smart.
Sounds familiar, cough cough.
She wants to be a marine biologist. At least for now. Before it was an astronaut.
Both are careers that require math. Like a lot of math. I guess sports writing now requires more math, too, with advanced analytics, but that is force-fed to writers who are still no good at math.
So we’ve been firm: We don’t get C’s in this house.
At least not in middle school or high school.
Once you’re an of-age adult, and you’re out on your own at college, you control your own destiny.
I’m sure that’s how my parents thought of it.
As long as she has that intense focus of chasing a career, kind of like I did, she can figure out the right areas to lean harder into. She’s not there yet.
We’re just balancing fun and schoolwork. Kind of like you have to do in college.
Because C’s may get degrees.
And UCSB does stand for “U Can Study Buzzed.”
Really thoughtful piece about balancing grades with lived experince. That tension between making sure the foundation is solid versus letting them chase what lights them up is real, especially when she's already figuring out her path toward marine biology. I've seen so many ppl coast through high school and then hit that wall where they dunno how to actually study when it matters.