Student faces tough work load
By the time some people are just getting to bed, East Los Angeles resident Raul Cabral is ready to start his shift, supervising a UPS warehouse. At the dark hour of 2 A.M., he is already in Baldwin Park—processing pay roll, paperwork, shipments and daily routes. By the end of his 8 hour shift, his day has barely begun.
From Baldwin Park he hops on the 605 southbound for a routine pit stop at the Cerritos LA Fitness. He doesn’t visit to lift weights or run on the treadmills, he actually just finds it as a convenient place to freshen up for the next phase of his busy day, school.
Cabral has been a journalism student since 2004, and this semester he will inch closer to obtaining his degree. He estimates that currently he is still about 25-30 units away from graduating, mostly because he took two years off of school. He plans on taking two courses this semester, which is sandwiched in between his full time job with UPS and his part time job as a tutor in the city of Arcadia.
He first started at Pasadena City College following his passion to write by joining the campus newspaper. A long time Laker fan, his aspirations initially were to cover sports but that quickly changed during his first few classes as he ended up covering hard news as well. He would eventually become an editor and in 2008 he had transferred to CSULB.
Today he balances a hectic schedule of two jobs, school all while still finding time for his long time girlfriend of 5 years. When asked about possible future literal engagements Cabral says ‘she talks about it all the time’ with a slight smile. Before he settles down he says he would like to clear some things off his plate, and be stable himself. Who can blame him?
