By the time this article is posted my brother will have graduated college, which is wonderful, and I’m glad I’m going to be there for the ceremony. However, there are two major problems: His college is in Ohio and it’s 11 hours away. Of course I have nothing against Ohio; it’s a great state full of corn, burning rivers, and football. My only problem is that Miami University in Ohio is, again, 11 hours away by car. I enjoy short car rides. I find them relaxing, but once it breaks the hour mark it starts to lose its appeal.

Here are nine reasons why long car rides are awful:

1. Dying hope

When the travel begins, you set out with this flicker of hope telling you it will all be worth it in the end. That hope quickly dies and gets crushed once you begin to start to feel some if not all of the following problems with long car rides.

2. Slowly growing less and less comfortable.

At first things aren't too bad; you settle into your seat buckle your belt and the ride begins. Eventually some part of your body begins to ache or your seat belt starts biting into you. Moving around is a short fix because soon this new position becomes uncomfortable. Eventually you can't move around anymore at the risk of tearing something or developing contortion skills.

3. Radio Issues

If you don't have your phone or music playing device then listening to the radio is a perfectly fine substitute. The issue is that not everyone enjoys the same music. Sure, you might all sing along to a Taylor Swift song, but eventually it turns into a battlefield when people stop agreeing.

4. Food

Food consumption oscillates between borderline starvation, rest stop food, drive-thru, and whatever else can be found. Dehydration may set in if you don't have anything to drink. It's not a good diet.

5. Car sickness

Personally I don't experience car sickness, but a portion of the population does face this issue and I am here to bring their plight to the mainstream.

6. Trying to fill the time

If you're having radio issues and slowly starving, the natural response would be to distract yourself. To try and keep the hope alive, it will probably fail. If you forgot to bring something that can entertain you for a short time, you can always watch the landscape go by. That couldn't possibly grow old.

7. Sleeping

Trying to sleep in the car is awkward and uncomfortable. People also have a habit of deciding that they weren't "really" asleep despite them not moving or making a noise for five hours.

8. Knowing you have to do it all over again

Once you finally make it and you feel a sense of a achievement, a sense of dread starts to creep in when a realization hits you. You have to do this all over again in the opposite direction.

9. An extra for any possible awkwardness

I have some personal experience here. Near the end of our harrowing journey, when I was already half dead we saw a car with a sticker for the same school we were going to. They were in the lane to our right and were pulling up next to us, I thought they saw the sticker on the back of our car so I waved to the father driving the car. He looked at me like I was insane and sped up. My mother offhandedly told me we need to get a new sticker like theirs because ours had fallen off.

There is a distinct possibility that you are able to handle long car rides and this doesn't apply to you, if so congrats.