Spring 2002

In this post I was thinking of developing a kind of long post about my first semester at Los Angeles City College in 2002 when I was 21. I've decided instead to give a light picture of those times.

Spring Semester 2002 at LACC, that was a very cool time in my life, one of my favorite times. I took 4 different courses that first semester, Sociology with Mr. Rodriguez, Philosophy with Mr. Critelli,  Asian Philosophy with Mr. Torres and Astronomy with Mr. Duluk: but it's not so much about which courses I took, this post and any other of my posts about this will be about my experience of that time and place, being 21 as I was back then, my mentality and interests and life experience. Man, when I think about how much better I could've lived my life after spring 2002, but spring 2002 itself was almost flawless, what I could've done better later is a different matter.

Before I continue, I want to explain that I've lived close to the LACC campus since I was a boy, and LACC is much closer to my home than my high school or junior high were. Also, I set my eyes on and used to go on the campus of LACC before I ever set my eyes on my junior high or high school. And since my mom also went to LACC (so did my dad for a few courses), LACC was a part of my life before my junior high or high school were. I live in East Hollywood less than 10 blocks away from the LACC campus, LACC is on the same latitude as my home and less than 10 blocks to the east of me in longitude.

I used to often walk to LACC from home in spring 2002, taking Lemon Grove Ave to the tunnel under the 101 freeway and onto North Ardmore Avenue then onto Romaine street then crossing Normandie Avenue and walking along Romaine street to Alexandria Avenue, then on Alexandria to Lily Crest or Monroe street, then onto the campus. That was the most common route, another route I think I took was Lemon Grove Ave to Kingsley Drive to Marathon street to North Ardmore Ave to Melrose Ave, and along Melrose to LACC: but I'm not 100% sure if I ever took that route, or some other combination besides the first route I described. After class, I would usually walk to the bus stop on the north side of Melrose Ave between Vermont Ave and New Hampshire Ave and wait for the number 10 bus, and I'd get off the 10 at Hobart Blvd or Western Ave. A few times though, or maybe even several times, I think I did walk home after class.

I decided to take Sociology, Philosophy, Asian philosophy and Astronomy 1: in retrospect, I wouldn't have taken astronomy, I would've taken a drawing class instead for my first semester. Philosophy, Asian Philosophy, and Astronomy 1 were all early in the day, and my latest class Sociology was from 3:25 pm to 6:35 PM (wow, in retrospect that was a very long class). It was only on Monday in Jefferson Hall. I still have the textbook, an essay that I wrote (typed up) for that class, and maybe some additional papers.

To be continued. Till then here are some details:

Spring 2002 Semester at Los Angeles City College in East Hollywood
Philosophy with Mr. Critelli in Frankin Hall Monday and Wednesday 9:35 AM to 11:00 AM
Sociology with Mr. Rodriguez in Jefferson Hall Monday 3:25 PM to 6:35 PM
Asian Philosophy with Mr. Torres in Holmes Hall Tuesday and Thursday 11:10 AM to 12:35 PM
Astronomy 1 with Mr. Duluk in Franklin Hall Tuesday and Thursday 12:45 PM to 2:10 PM