When I was deciding where I would go to college, I narrowed it down to two choices. One was a school almost two hours away that I would have to live at, and the other was Seton Hall, where I would have to commute, and the school I eventually choose. When weighing my options, I knew that I'd always wanted to live away at school - to have my own dorm room and decorate it with every dorm item Target sold, to walk lazily around campus on a Sunday morning, and eat in the dining hall with my friends. My brother commuted to Seton Hall, and I just always figured I'd live away. So, when I chose to commute to school, I was as surprised as anyone else.
The dream of living away was gone, as Seton Hall is only 20 minutes away from home and it didn't make sense to live there. I first started to feel the hate for commuting during my very first week at school during orientation, where everyone talked about their dorm, their RAs, , their roommates, and what they did and didn't bring to school (and what they regretted for both). After classes, as heaps of resident students walked to the dining hall and swiped their meal plan into the dining area, I stayed in the commuter caf, most of the time by myself. In classes, as I tried to make friends, conversations always seemed to wind up on the topic of school and dorming life. Getting used to navigating and parking in the parking deck was a nightmare- I got into an accident after only a month on campus as I was trying to park. I spent time worrying about and sitting in traffic, and driving on a dangerous highway that has massive amounts of construction.
This attitude wasn't just a result of the change to college life- it's carried on into the spring semester. When I'm on campus, I never really feel like I have a place- I usually rotate between the library and the campus Dunkin' Donuts in between classes. I carry my backpack around every second I'm on campus, and always feel like I'm going backpacking across Western Europe with all the stuff I have to carry. My laptop, all my books for the day, my wallet and car keys, and everything else I need for my 6 hour day on campus have to be carried as I trek across campus because I never have the time or to walk back and forth to the fifth floor of the parking deck.
The flipside to my commuting woes are the benefits of living at home, which, now that I look back at it, severely outweigh living in a dirty, cramped dorm room. My family is the most important thing in my life, and with all of the things going on with my family right now, I'm happy to go through everything at school because it means I can see them every day. I'm extremely close with my family- they're my best friends and I spend the majority of my time with them. If I did live at school, I would have to get a second job to pay my cell phone bill with all the calls, Facetimes, and text messages to my family and friends that I would need to stay sane. When I get stressed out with schoolwork or need help, my family is right there to help, and you can't exactly call your family just to ask "what's another word for ____?" when you've got writers block at 10 o' clock at night trying to write an essay. Staying at home is also great for me because I love being active in my town, from choreographing a musical to running a food pantry. There's also the obvious benefits to living at home- having your own room, sleeping in a comfy bed, not cooking every day, and not worrying about communal showers, to name a few.
Choosing to commute to college has changed my entire college experience. I next to never attend events at night because the area around my school isn't great to drive around in, especially in the dark. I don't have that many friends because I'm not on campus to socialize as much as everyone else is- I drive to school, I go to class, and I come home. I'm not as involved as I always was in high school because meetings are at odd times where I'm forced to wait on campus and then get home late and don't have time to complete assignments.
I dont wan't you to think that I'm complaining about commuting- I chose it, and now I have to stick with it. Complaining won't change the traffic on I-280 or the gas prices. They're just things I have to live with now as a college student. As bad as commuting might sound, I hear worse stories from friends living at school, and it's then when I'm grateful I don't have to deal with living with another person, cleaning suite bathrooms, or worrying about when I'm going to get laundry done. I get to focus on my classes and how I'm performing academically instead of worrying about living on my own.
