Hi Mom. I'm okay I'm just tired. What's for dinner tonight? Yeah, ok. See you soon. I love you.
Conversations like these fill my phone calls and my text-messages. I am a college student, and I am commuting from home, and that's okay. In fact, I couldn't be happier that I made this decision, because I know it's perfect for me. Living at home, I get the best of both worlds and-Hannah Montana jokes aside- I will never be ashamed of that.
It seems like everyone who doesn't commute, or who did once and stopped commuting, has a negative opinion on it. From the time you're first visiting campuses in high school, you hear the stories from everyone who can tell you.
Oh I used to commute, but I was just going to classes and coming back.
I don't commute anymore because I wasn't getting the "college experience."
Once I left home I knew I was never going back.
Before I started school, when I heard these things, I nodded along and smiled, because they were all the reasons I knew I wanted to dorm. I loved my family, but I couldn't wait to live on my own, start my own life, and call my own shots. Then I actually got to school, lived there a year, and I learned that dorm-life was not for me.
When I hear people's reasons for dorm-life now, I nod. I respect that those things are right for them. But sometimes I feel like it doesn't always go in both directions. When I tell people I changed my status from resident to commuter, I'm met with raised eyebrows and questions like "aren't you tired?"
The answer is yes, I'm exhausted during the week. I'm not going to lie and say I don't miss waking up ten minutes before class and going there in my pajamas. But at the end of the day, it's all worth it. Nothing is more comforting to me at the end of a long day than being able to go home to a home-cooked meal, my own bed, and a hug from my Mom.
I tried the "college experience." It wasn't for me. While I loved chatting in the hall with my friends until three in the morning, college brought lots of emotional challenges, and on my worst days, something as simple as having to eat in the dining hall felt devastating.
I love my life as a commuter. I'm living in happy, peaceful moments every day, making memories I love, rather than only making those memories on the weekends, when I would go home. There's no better feeling than being at sorority recruitment until 11:30, coming home at midnight, heating up leftover fries and watching The Big Bang Theory with my parents.
Yes I commute. And for the longest time, I avoided making the decision, and struggled with being ashamed of it. There's this stigma that you should be eager to leave home and never look back once you hit eighteen. I was worried there was something wrong with me, that I still needed my Mom most days even though I was an adult. But I have no reason to be ashamed, and I will never apologize.
Commuting truly is the best of both worlds. I spend the day on campus: go to my classes, see my friends, sleep in my own bed at night, eat my Mom's cooking, play dress up with my little sister, and spend the weekends with my family and friends from home. Spending college at home, I'm having my perfect "college experience", and I'm living my best life.
