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diversions:
Making the most
out of dorm life
By Andres Cardenas
On-line Forty-Niner
Most people get
their fill of the dorm life at Cal State Long Beach after
an average of two years.
Others spend maybe
just a year.
For senior sociology
major Justin Glenn, it has been five. In these five years
he has gone from hating dorm life to almost embracing it.
While it may seem that dorm life is dull, especially at CSULB,
Glenn has found ways to make his stay interesting. He is currently
the resident tech in the dorms, but once went into business
with a group of friends from Oakland selling a line of clothes
called 594 gear.
"This place
would not let me go, it grabbed hold of me," Glenn said.
Originally from
Ohio, Glenn came to CSULB from Berkeley in the fall of 1996.
Current roommate
John Wong has lived in the dorms for two years and has known
Glenn for just as long. Wong said Glenn's time in the dorms
has run its course.
"I think it
is kind of odd," Wong said. "I think it is little
bit too long to stay in the dorms."
After five years
of living in the dorm, Glenn said his life has become repetitive.
"I have really
got conditioned to the same thing," Glenn said. "Two
hours on upper campus, then three hours dead time [at the
dorms]. Then another one-and-a-half hours of class on upper
campus and then the rest of the day just sitting around."
For the last two
years Glenn has been a resident tech, which help students
that live in the dorms connect to the Internet. He also helps
students with any computer questions they may have. In exchange
for this service he stays in the dorms for free.
Information tech
specialist for housing and residential life Elson Browne hired
Glenn and said he was instantly impressed.
"He wasn't
your stereotypical "techie" type person," Browne
said. "I found that he interacted well with the residents."
His only experience
living off campus was two summers ago when he shared an apartment
with two friends. This experience did not settle well with
him, he said, and after receiving the residential technician
position he was willing to come back.
During Glenn's
freshman year, he was against dorm living and life in Southern
California in general.
"I still don't
like living in Southern California," Glenn said. "It's
tolerable, it was a cool experience, but I really don't want
to live here."
Glenn attempted
to transfer to UC Santa Cruz, but after discovering that less
than half of his 18 units would transfer and that it would
cost more than $7,000 a year, he decided to come back to CSULB.
However, it was
something his mom had told Glenn after his first semester
that he would take and run with. The advice was simple; "Life
is what you make it." After that first year Glenn decided
to have fun and try to be remembered.
"I have never
wanted to be forgotten," Glenn said. "It is unrealistic
for people to remember my name because you meet so many people
here, but when they are telling their kids about college and
they go, 'I remember this one guy, I don't remember his name
but he did this.'"
For Glenn this
would be his immortality.
During his five
years at the dorms, the most memorable experience for Glenn
was when he went into business with several friends from the
Bay Area designing clothes called 594 Gear. The number refers
to the California Penal code for malicious mischief. Glenn
was able to go to conventions selling his line of clothes.
Glenn's most memorable moment came when an advertisement featured
a photo of Glenn and his friends in several hip-hop magazines.
"That was
the big pay off," Glenn said. "For all the money
that I spent and never got back it was all worth it."
Unfortunately,
594 Gear was unable to survive.
"It ended
up costing us a lot of money and we ended up not turning a
profit," Glenn said. "We were just young kids selling
stupid stuff, but it was real experience."
After graduation,
Glenn said he might take a year off. He added that he might
consider working as a computer programmer or perhaps enrolling
in law school at Ohio State, the University of San Francisco,
UC San Francisco or UNLV. But getting into UNLV or Ohio State
does present an irony to Glenn.
"If I get
into UNLV or Ohio State, guess where I have to live."
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