The Isla Vista hype is lame.

Rain or shine, from Thursday through Saturday, thousands of college students herd the 1-mile radius like buffalo to the river. Guys act hard, walking with a limp trying to rep where they’re from, while girls stroll these streets like models on a catwalk.

People talk the same old talk before and after every weekend: Isla Vista this, Del Playa that. Just hearing the abbreviations IV and DP make me cringe.

Every Monday morning, guys are saying, “Yeah bro, I got super wasted on DP.” At the same time, the typical girl is saying, “Like oh my gosh Steph, did you hear what happened on the 6500 block?”

Dodging this type of talk is like trying to dodge the draft. It’ll just be a different day, but the same topic of conversation. I’d be a millionaire by now if I could collect a penny for everytime I heard someone touch on the subject.

Don’t get me wrong, there are probably those who live in this town that responsibly and legally balance the lifestyles of school and fun. Those who are able to get their priorities done and free up some time to be social can be considered as talented.

But for some, making this town the cornerstone of their existence seems all too common. Oddly this culture-if you want to consider it that-seems to be interpreted as cool.

Call it boring, but wasn’t college supposed to be the time in life when kids become adults?

Nowadays, it seems that the measure of being a man is determined by the size of his fist, the circumference of the blunt he’s smoking, or how well he is dressed.

But how can these people think that they’re so hard, when behind the scenes they’re whining to Mommy about making a deposit into their Wells Fargo account?

For the ladies, being a woman is determined-no-limited to how high their skirts are, how they handle their shots of Bacardi 151, or by the fluency of their ignorant Barbie doll accents.

People look to these “party going” skills as something to be proud of, when really their life is being guzzled down by the bottle. Celebrating can be fun, but when people do it eight days a week, something’s wrong.

What ever happened to having some sense of character, and practicing the traditional values of responsibility, self-control, and most of all, self respect?

This town is consumed in the same old talk and the same old habits. It would be nice to hear about something other than how many beers you drank, and what house number the party is at over the weekend.

What this town really needs are some real people, with some real sense of what’s important.

For the hard-working people looking to be independent and who go against this common grain: Keep your head up.

For the others who put on some front, and are just another typical college student looking for a good time: Stop wasting your parents’ money and start growing up.