As the USF on campus housing process for new and continuing students comes to a close, many students may begin to realize that they’ll have to resort to living off-campus and commuting to USF. This may come off as a burden to many people. Having to sit in public transportation for hours on end every single weekday may seem like a daunting process for some, especially knowing that they’re only going to a class where they need to sit for even longer waiting for class to finish. It’s like a repeated cycle every single day that they’ll have to learn to adapt to. Even though I currently live on campus, I’m well aware of the fact that I’ll be commuting for at least 2 hours everyday next semester. This is a fact that I’m actually excited for because I’ve developed strategies for what I can do while commuting each day. Two of these strategies I want to share briefly are listening to music and reading.
The first strategy I’ve developed for commuting is simply listening to music and looking outside the window. This may seem obvious to some, but I personally really enjoy the ease of giving time to yourself to listen to my favorite artists and really tune in on their message. We often spend the majority of our days thinking about our priorities and thinking about our action-plans in all of our goals for the day. This may become stressful to a lot of us, so I think spending time each day exposing myself to art is a great way to calm my nerves and take a break from thinking about the stress that comes from my priorities. Although I may not have the time everyday to spend time outside in nature, I try to at least take advantage of the views I get of nature from my window. Receiving a view of nature gives me something to be thankful for, especially if it’s a sunny day in gloomy San Francisco.
My second strategy is to read while commuting. I used to strongly dislike reading as a kid; however, I’ve recently found so much joy out of reading everyday for at least thirty minutes. Reading while commuting is great because it’s a designated time for you to put all of your attention to another work of art. I personally enjoy reading motivational and spiritual books because I always find I learn something new to apply to my everyday life. Reading while commuting is a designated time for me to challenge the way I live my life and apply my new skills and see how they may affect my everyday life. This also makes the time I spend commuting go by much faster, because I’m doing something productive and putting all of my attention towards it. Some of my favorite books that I’ve read while commuting are, “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success” by Deepak Chopra and “The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom” by Don Miguel Ruiz and Peter Coyote.
These are only two of my personal strategies to avoid being bored while commuting. Overall I truly believe that commuting shouldn’t be so daunting because of all the benefits that come from it. A big one I would say is saving money and avoiding paying for housing and a meal plan (which can range from about 10k-15k each semester alone). Commuting should be seen as an opportunity for people to be more productive throughout the day so they can take the time to relax and wind down through the long hours of public transportation or traffic.
