I'm sure we all know a student or two who commute to campus. It might be your best friend or it might be someone you just see around every now and then.

That person just happens to be me.

I had some things to deal with over the summer and they ended up not allowing me to live in my college town, so I was forced to resort to commuting to campus. Luckily, I was able to switch my schedule around to include only online classes, and now I'm only available to be on campus on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm still struggling with driving an hour and 15 minutes to get there, but it's better that it's only twice a week instead of every day all week.

I don't know what I was expecting. I knew this was going to suck. My car uses up gas like crazy and I don't have to be on campus until later (like after 6:00 p.m.), and it's something I brought upon myself by poor decisions. I thought this was something that I wouldn't actually hate, but man was I wrong.

I knew from the start it was going to be nothing but long nights and hours of driving taking up my time, but I didn't expect it would be this much effort.

Between work, classes and my on-campus meetings, I knew this was going be a little difficult.

I didn't want to admit I had been defeated by my own procrastination and lack of responsibility, but I know now that this is something I don't want to have to deal with for a long time. Though it's given me a chance to listen to some new tunes and Spotify playlists, I can't imagine making these trips this often for very much longer.

I guess my point is that we're all tired.

We're tired of school, work, siblings, co-workers, classmates, and various other things.

I'm not trying to portray commuters as these heroes who deserve so much more recognition than regular students, but please don't push us aside. We deserve to be recognized as a struggling group of people who don't have the world laid out beneath our feet.

So take the time to check in on the commuters in your life. Remind them of all the good things that exist outside of driving to and from class. Show them you care about their mental state and well being.

Just be kind to everyone. We're all dealing with something.