Since my return from Washington D.C., where I went to see the inauguration of Barack Obama as our 44th president, I have had to deal with a dead cat, a dead car and a computer that died the night before my inauguration article was due.

The United States is based on different cultures uniting under one flag to achieve common goals. Whether certain cultures are represented properly is an issue constantly debated with little to no resolution.

Classes become even harder when the class is full, the waiting list is full, and the room is full of students standing or sitting on the floor. I have been in this situation many times. There are times when I am enrolled in a class and I do not even get to sit down.

How would you feel if you found out that you never had to purchase another textbook again? Never had to stand in line at the bookstore again? Never had to haul those math and science tomes from the farthest corners of the North parking lot?

I’m amazed by how many students I meet on campus who don’t have jobs. I always thought that community college was for the masses that couldn’t afford a four-year university and therefore were working their way through a junior college.

Recently my “at home life” has been pretty interesting in light of the fact that I live with some pretty interesting characters. I usually hang out at school with people who are interested in journalism, and because of what I have been through in my short 23 years of life, I feel as if I cannot relate to anything these students do in their personal lives at all.

Three different stories on legal addiction and how it can impact your friends, family and life.

Two students debate how new tech tools impact our classrooms.

As our students and families deal with the current economic crisis, community colleges deal with budget cuts. With the state of California currently facing a $42 billion shortfall, Los Rios Community College District is forced to cut money everywhere possible.

This is my last semester of higher education. I graduate in May and I won’t be transferring to a university for another two years of studying, commuting and practically starving. Actually, given the cost of a four-year school these days the starving would become less of a cute euphemism and more of a reality. I don’t have to worry about that though because I am not moving up to the Big School.