Author: gingerale

When I was in middle school and in early high school days, I always told myself that when it was time for me to go to college that I was going to go as far away as I could. Little did I know that I was going to choose a university ten minutes away from home. Over the time I’ve learned that there are many pros and cons to being a commuter.   The biggest con for me is that sometimes I don’t feel like I am in control, there are days where there’s bad weather, moments where I can’t find parking spots, and heavy traffic. This year I have a lot of time in between my classes and wish I could just walk to my dorm and nap. It would get really expensive if I went back and forth from school to my house. There are also times where I feel like I am missing opportunities that students living on campus may have. It makes me feel left out since I’m not there to experience campus life. Since I have a part-time job it’s also a conflict trying to find a right schedule,it can get hard trying to make time for my outside life and personal life.

 But the good always outweighs the bad. For every con, there’s five pros of being a college commuter. The biggest pro there is, is that I get to save a lot of money by living at home, which is a win-win for me. I also enjoy coming home to my mom’s home cooked meals and having dinner as a family, seeing my extended family, pets, and best friends whenever I want to. When I get sick I know that I turn into the biggest baby, it’s nice to know that I can always count on my mom to be there when I need her the most, I would be devastated if she wouldn’t be near me when i’m sick. But overall it’s nice to not have to say emotional goodbyes and wait until thanksgiving to see them. Best thing about commuting is that I appreciate having my own personal room and bathroom. I don’t have to worry about changing and worrying that my roommate will see me. It also makes you appreciate sleeping in a comfortable bed. I enjoy my queen size bed, do you enjoy your bed? 

Before I started college, I really wondered if it was going to be like in the movies, big lectures, frats/sororities, making friends, tiny dorm rooms, and partying every night. In reality, for me, it wasn’t like that at all. I was a commuter, so that cut down a lot of the “traditional” college life activities. I would drive to the University of Green Bay every day, so I never got to experience dorm life. The first day of school I actually had a class with twenty students, so that answered my curiosity of wondering if all my classes would be lectures. This to me was a sense of relief because I can have one on one conversations with the professor. Since I’m a commuter, I realized that everyone in my classes already had their cliques. I thought it was going to be hard to make friends or even start a conversation, but in reality everyone is really nice and welcoming.

Overall I expected college to be this judgemental place where people are always loaded with homework and stressed out while consuming a lot of caffeine. But actually it’s not; everyone is very friendly and wants students to get involved. A lot of the time professors will assign a couple of assignments but they give students lots of  time to work on them, since they know that we have outside lifes and other things that we need to do. In reality college did not match my expectations, it exceeded them. Everyone who is here like professors, advisors and, even students, they’re all here to help us succeed. This is just a piece of how my college journey has been, I still have two years to go. 

      source;Ivywise.com