Viewpoint by ALMA LINDA MANZANARES
amanzanares6@ student.alamo.edu
On my way to campus one Monday, I dragged my zombified body across the street and cut a sidewalk corner, attempting to walk in the mud because I was running late to speak for The Ranger on KSYM 90.1FM.
Needless to say, I slipped and fell — twice — and was covered in mud from head to toe. As if things weren’t bad enough, I neglected to do laundry that weekend and the clothes I had on were the only “clean” clothes I had. What a horror story.
Fortunately for me, I live right across the street from campus, south of Oppenheimer Academic Center, to be exact.
If any emergency occurs, I can easily walk the five minutes it takes from The Ranger newsroom in Room 212 of Loftin Student Center, to my apartment.
I can leave the newsroom midday — like that ever happens — to go home and make lunch before my next class.
No more getting up two or three hours before class starts to catch a bus, or two, to make it on time, or leaving the newsroom late on production days and arriving home when it’s pitch black outside.
I have the opportunity to take advantage of the many services the college has to offer without worrying about what time I should leave campus to catch the bus.
Two libraries are in reach: this college’s library in Moody Learning Center and the public San Pedro Branch Library in the park.
Remember when Belle walks into the ginormous library in the Beast’s castle in Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast”?
OK, maybe it’s not that dramatic, but it’s still a bookworm’s dream. It beats a never-ending search engine, such as Google, for a biography and worrying whether the webpage is reliable.
I also am able to stay in the evenings for recitals and plays in the auditorium of McAllister Fine Arts Center or the theater of McCreless Hall without having to worry about missing the last bus.
Once the Tobin Hill Lofts are complete, more will have the opportunity to live in such close proximity. The public-private partnership will be built at the northwest corner of North Main Avenue and East Laurel Street.
The project consists of a 1,000-space parking garage; a four-story, 150-unit residential development; and 63 residential units in a third building at Evergreen Street and Main. Amenities include a fitness center, theater room and swimming pool. Each apartment will have a flat screen television with rent starting at $600 to $700 per month.
While those amenities are nice, the best part is being able to sleep longer and coming and going to and from campus as I please to take advantage of the many opportunities this college offers, such as the unlimited amount of knowledge in the pages of books in the library.
