Internet Critiques College Student's Personal Essay for 'Lack of Self-Awareness'

The NYU student wrote about her study abroad experience in Florence, but it didn't garner the reaction she likely expected.

One college student is at the center of the ire of the world wide web.

Stacia Datskovska, a journalism and international relations major at New York University, published a personal essay on Insider about "wasting precious time" while studying abroad in Florence, Italy, and the internet simply isn't having it.

The article in question was published last week on March 9, but it quickly gained traction on Twitter in the last couple of days, with many users ripping the young journalist apart for her lack of self-awareness as well as the publication's news judgment for moving forward with the pitch in the first place.

Datskovska chronicles the trip—which she was required to go on for her major–from the very beginning, when she was excited to live with a large group of other young women and imagined "potluck dinners" and "summer flings," to the end, where she "grew to despise the sights, hated the people, and couldn't wait to get back home."

She shares how she quickly learned that living with seven other girls was not the fairytale she dreamed it would be, and soon grew to resent their "asynchronous schedules" as the others traveled, shopped, and barhopped, while Datskovska stayed in to focus on her GPA and online internship. "I wasn't out partying; I was home working most of the time, and it became difficult to concentrate on my assignments," she wrote.

And while she did take a few weekend trips, they were few and far between, unlike her fellow students. She described their "$20 Ryanair flights to places like Croatia and Munich for Oktoberfest" as "an exhausting form of escapism" and an excuse to "make their friends back home jealous."

As her classmates "burned themselves out with travel" while she stayed home alone most weekends, she was left "disillusioned by the fact that no one in [her] study-abroad program seemed to have [her] values."

But she also grew to resent the local residents, whom she describes as "hostile, inconsiderate, and preposterous" after being faced with a pair of women on the bus who "look[ed] at [her] up and down and scoff[ed]," as well as a couple of verbal confrontations

Finally, she describes herself as "consistently frustrated" that her life had not been put on hold for the experience. "Fellow NYU students...were actively pursuing in-person internships, networking with zeal, and making moves to advance their futures."

She continued, "I watched as my study-abroad classmates acted as if they could escape real-life obligations forever. I wanted to confront my obligations head-on." Instead, she was just wasting her time in Europe.

Unfortunately, once Twitter got its hands on the essay, it had a free for all.

One user shared screenshots of the piece, writing, "No self-awareness" alongside them.

A few people pointed out that your attitude and approach will play a big part in your experience, with one reply reading, in part, "It’s what you make it," while another agreed that "you get out of it what you put into it."

But most replies were highly critical of Datskovska's seeming inability to make the most of the experience that so many students only wish they could have and her "virtue signaling."

"I love when the most insufferable people get to do a guest editorial highlighting their exhaustive lack of self awareness. My favorite themes of late stage capitalism," one person said.

Many cited popular film depictions of similar situations, like The Lizzie McGuire Movie and Emily in Paris, as a root cause.

"Emily in Paris has caused irreparable cultural damage," one wrote, while another suggested, "Someone watched the lizzie mcguire movie too many times."

"So basically rich girl is mad that real life Italy isn’t the same as her imagined rom-com Italy and other people don’t see her as the main character in their world," the onslaught continued.

"I went to Europe and it was a real place instead of a movie set, and Italian men had jobs and didn't have time to sexily escort me around on a vespa all day," another posed.

But many others focused their attention on the editors, whom they say should've either never approved the pitch in the first place or given the young journalist private criticism to avoid the backlash she now faces, rather than putting their bottom line above the potential negative impact on a career she's barely even begun.

Author Abby Young-Powell pointed out how journalism students are encouraged to pitch as much as possible, which backfires in cases like this.

Carmen Gray, a freelance journalist, suggested that the piece would have been better framed by the "extreme culture shock" that Datskovska was clearly experiencing.

"I feel like it was almost cruel for someone to let a young writer publish something this short-sighted. This is so roastable, it’s hard to imagine thinking it wouldn’t gain traction online just for that," writer Olivia Messer wrote, later tweeting, "Can we not crucify the NYU study abroad girl? Any good editor would have ripped her to shreds privately instead of exposing her to public humiliation. Writing means writing a ton of stuff that is stupid and short-sighted. Most of us were lucky we got to make our mistakes quietly."

"Twitter loves a villain. It was dumb, but I probably would have written something not terribly insightful at that age about my study abroad experience in London," one user admitted.

Hopefully, we can all use this as a learning experience moving forward, allowing young people to make the mistakes we've all made ourselves at one point or another—in many cases, much more privately than this—without it damaging their careers or reputations.