God forbid you hit the red lights off of Riverstone Parkway, or, even worse, the random construction happening at the most inconvenient times off of Highway 140. Still, this is all just the start of your bad morning because you know you still have to find a parking spot. You woke up thirty minutes earlier than you needed to just to give yourself enough time to make it to class on time, only to run into unexpected traffic delays before having to coast around a full lot looking for a place to park.
COMMUTER LIFE
By Jenna Bednarsky
This is commuter life. It’s thrilling and forever keeps you on your toes–except it’s only funny the first couple of times you’re late to class.
While living off-campus has its perks—home-cooked meals, warm showers, not having to share a room with a noisy roommate—there is one drawback to not living in the dorms: the commute. After interviewing a handful of commuters about the struggles of commuter life, one thing is certain: the drive to campus is the worst part of the deal.
Having gone from living on campus to living the commuter life, Grant Sufferling now feels that pain of having to drive to class on a daily basis. When asked about his least favorite part of commuting, he point blank
states, “Making the drive to campus every day.”
Like Sufferling, many commuters agree that life would be much easier if we could all roll out of bed fifteen minutes before class and walk to wherever we need to be without having to account for traffic and finding a parking space. “As a commuter, that's the trade-off you accept when you decide to live off campus at your own apartment or with your parents. The hardest part about being a commuter is staying disciplined—making sure
sure you wake up and drive to your 8 a.m.'s and not trying to find an excuse not to,” says golfer Ben Dulin.
These are, of course, factors at play in the daily life of a commuter that Reinhardt University can’t help. The stories of early mornings and gas money are endless. One commuter, Jonathan See, says, “You get less sleep because you have to account for driving time…. And sometimes commuters can't control wrecks, additional traffic, and so on.”
Charlotte Greaser, a junior here at Reinhardt, reiterates the point. For her, the hardest part about being a commuter is “not having the advantage to walk to class—and all the gas money.” However, as Dulin said, this is the choice and sacrifice a commuter makes.
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Gas petal to the floorboard, breakfast still clinging to the corners of your mouth, coffee half-drunk and sloshing around in the center console—