If you’re a commuter like me, you the struggle is real. The daily commute, the caffeine addiction, the early wake up times and late sleep times, it’s a lot to manage. As a commuter you know these things all too well.
1. Waking Up Early
Class at nine am? You gotta wake up at six. As a commuter, you know how much time it takes to get ready, pack your bag, and commute to the school. Your biggest fear is waking up late because if you are even five minutes off schedule, you’re done. So a big part of your nighttime routine is setting multiple alarms.
2. You Might As Well Be Carrying A Bag Of Bricks
You may only have two classes today, but as a commuter you gotta bring everything. Your laptop, notebooks, wallet, chargers, even textbooks ( just in case you get assigned a reading) etc. You never know how much school supplies actually weighs until you have to haul it too and from your university every day.
3. You Survive Off Coffee
Tired? Coffee. Going out out? Coffee. Stress? Coffee. It literally becomes the answer to everything. Personally, I went from drinking one cup of coffee everyday to drinking three.
4. Public Transportation
If you use public transportation, like I do, you know what a pain it can be. Specifically in traffic or when your train randomly stops on the track. You sit there staring at the clock thinking, “ If this train/bus/subway doesn’t start moving in five minutes, I’m going to be late." On top of that, professors don’t care that your train stalled on the tracks for 15 minutes. It’s a very stressful situation.
5. Your Day Is Pretty Routine
My daily routinely sounds like this : wake up, train ride, subway ride, go to class, get food, go to class again, go to the library, go home, repeat. Honestly, having a routine is really something you get comfortable in, and if you’re like me you refuse to break this routine.
6. No Time To Relax And No Time To Eat
Between club meetings, classes, homework, and the commute, you're lucky if you get five minutes of breathing time. Classes are over? Well now you have to go to the library and get your homework done before you head home. You have a break between classes? Well you better grab a Clif Bar and run to that club meeting. You’re done for the day? Well you can’t just sit and relax, you gotta go home before it gets too late.
7. You Envy Residents For Having It So Easy
All the struggles you endure daily make it hard to not envy the resident students who live five minutes away from class. They don’t know how good they have it, or maybe they do, either way they are the lucky ones for sure.
8. Making Friends Is Hard
If you don’t make the first move and talk to people, you’re not gonna meet people. Nevertheless, it’s still hard because there simply just isn’t enough time to make friends. You have to schedule time specifically for socializing and usually that's no more than an hour. On the bright side, it does increase your social skills!
9. You Get Home Late Every. Single. Day.
Most commutes are very long and you’re lucky if you get home before eight pm. By the time you get home, all you wanna do is lay in your bed and attempt to check social media/ text people back before you knock out. Arriving home late and waking up early is definitely one of the most brutal struggles of commuter life.
10. You're Tired ALL The Time
You go to class tired, you do your homework tired, even when you relax you’re tired. This only fuels you new caffeine addiction. The only time you're not tired is on the weekend. Just kidding, you are, because if you’re like me you work. There is no rest for commuters.
