Finally! After what felt like an eternity, the girl in black has been released from jail. Which means I can finally get back on the road and explore new places with her. She mentioned she was going to visit a friend in a small beach town known as Santa Cruz. I didn’t have the chance to hear why she was visiting her, but she seemed less excited and more frustrated. This was very intriguing to me, since most of the time she’s been pretty calm and relaxed.
We sped over to Santa Cruz on State Route 1. As soon as we arrived I could tell the town had character. People seemed happy, and the town had a bunch of different building architecture styles. Before I knew it, we had arrived at The University of California, Santa Cruz; a university that prides itself in research and being at the forefront of human discovery. All of this awe and wonder was cut short however, since this college and town had a curse I was unaware of. We were blocked access to the campus, due to students marching and screaming with signs. We veered off to the side and parked close to the commotion. The girl in black hopped out and embraced someone in the group; she then started making noises with the others while waving signs. I was so confused about what was happening here.
As people were walking past I was able to read some of their signs and listen to what they were shouting. Lots of signs had the word “COLA” written on them and were targeting the council of the school. I still was not sure why they would attack their own school though. Doesn’t the school provide opportunity and help for them? I turned on my radio and began listening to the school’s radio station. I could hear two students talking about graduate level students striking against the school for better pay, so that they could afford to live in Santa Cruz. I was very surprised by this. If the school had lots of money, why couldn’t they just pay their students more? Why does a small city like Santa Cruz cost so much to live in? There still were so many unanswered questions that needed to be answered about this on going strike.
Eventually, the girl in black came back with her friend. In the process of taking the friend home, I was able to gather all the information I needed about the town. Apparently, the cost of living is extremely high in Santa Cruz due to the tech industry in Silicon Valley. Most people want to live close and commute to work, and since they work with technology they make a ridiculous amount of money. This leaves graduate students in a rough situation, since they have to live in this expensive town while also getting paid low wages for getting a degree at the University. It was starting to make sense why the students were striking in the first place. The school is not giving the students the chance to thrive in their environment.
I feel really bad for the graduate students. How are they supposed to live in this really expensive town with the wages they earn? To me it seems like they are stuck, since they are also trying to earn a degree at the University. I can’t do anything to help though, I’m just a car.
William Alpine 