Should we really have been so surprised? Quitting things seems to be a defining trait of Sarah Palin. This, after all, is a woman who attended five colleges in as many years:
Palin’s first stop, at the University of Hawaii in Hilo in 1982, didn’t last long, according to Johnson. Palin and three Wasilla friends who expected sunny skies were dismayed at Hilo’s rainy climate, Johnson sa
Palin then shifted to Hawaii Pacific College in sunnier Honolulu. She was enrolled full-time for a semester, school spokeswoman Crystale Lopez said.
Missing home, Palin transferred again to North Idaho College, a community college in Coeur d’Alene, near Sandpoint, where Palin was born.
She studied two semesters there in 1983 as a general studies major, according to school spokeswoman Hudson. She said she couldn’t find any professors who remembered Palin.
Federal privacy laws prevent universities from disclosing grades, and Palin hasn’t released them.
Palin moved in 1984 to the University of Idaho, where her brother Chuck Jr. played for the football team, Johnson said. She went to dormitory dance parties, rarely drank and never had boys in her room, according to Hagerty. She spoke often about her high- school sweetheart, now her husband, Todd Palin, and fishing in Alaska during the summer.
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For one semester, in fall 1985, she attended Matanuska- Susitna Community College in Palmer, Alaska, according to school spokeswoman Sandy Gravley. “It looks like she may have taken a few classes there,” Palin spokeswoman Maria Comella said in an e- mail.
And then there was Palin’s explanation for why she abruptly ended her tenure as head of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission:
Palin said it was hard to do her job with potential civil penalties hanging over her head if she talked about what went on at her agency. She said the experience was taking the “oomph” out of her passion for government service and she decided to quit rather than becoming bitter.