( COMING APART AT THE SEAMS )

[THE DEAN]

perhaps you had been out having lunch with your friends. maybe you were shopping for something to wear for a party you were going to later. chances were, you were somewhere doing something insignificant in your life when the earth below your feet started to shake. california is no shy stranger to earthquakes nor has it ever been. everyone remembered the san fransisco earthquake back in 1989. what people didn't think they'd have to remember is the los angeles earthquake of 2008. no one saw it coming, not even scientists. it was truly a freak of nature. but on june 5th at 1:35 in the afternoon, scientists received data of an earthquake measuring a 7.2 on the richter scale hitting the los angeles area. an earthquake like that can spread hundreds of miles. one place it spread to: long beach, california. building fell, crumbling as if made from clay. highways destroyed, falling apart as if they were toothpicks. hundreds of people in the city of long beach passed on. do you remember where you were?

that was over a year ago, and the city has tried it's best to move on. receiving help from the rest of the nation, they started to rebuild and move on. what else could they do? nothing could bring away those who died, bring back the lives people lived before the quake. among the rebuilding came the california state university of long beach. of the sprawling campus, many of the eighty-plus building were destroyed by the quake. over a year later, the college has been rebuilt to its former glory and deemed safe enough to be re-opened finally. now, after over a year of being out of commission, long beach state is now open for the 2009-2010 school year. enrollment in the school has been excelling like always and as the new year is about to begin, things at long beach state are starting to feel good as new. but for those former students, will things ever be the same? what about those who lost loved ones in the quake?

either way, now matter who you are arriving here, chances are that you're
( COMING APART AT THE SEAMS )

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