Live at home for the first year of college, they said. It will be fun, they said. Ah, commuting, such a delicate, misunderstood beast.
Caught in between life on campus and elsewhere, the commuter student tries to have the best of both worlds. But it doesn’t always work out that way.
While many USF St. Petersburg students may enjoy a leisurely nap between classes, the typical commuter wanders around the library in hopes of finding a comfy chair big enough to curl up in (blanket optional). If sleeping outdoors is more your speed, you can always lay down on the ever-cushy cement benches encircling the majestic Harborwalk fountain. I’ve seen it done before. Really.
When your nap is over and you still have a little bit of time to kill before that underwater basket weaving class, lunch is always a good option. Without a meal plan, the commuter’s food options are essentially limitless, although finding a place to sit down with your chow is not always as easy. A word of advice: the seagulls by the harbor, although plump, are surprisingly aggressive. If you offer up that Dorito you might lose a thumb. (And you thought the squirrels were bad!)
Not to say that being a commuter student is all a struggle. There are certain perks that come with commuting that dorm students will never understand. For instance, you learn to form valuable relationships outside of class. I’ve become pretty chummy with my local gas station clerk, seeing as how cars need gas and I am purchasing so much of it. Seriously folks, we commuters are driving ALL THE TIME. If I’m not behind the wheel headed to school, I’m studying. Commuters also learn how to perfectly calculate the time it takes to drive to USFSP — including the minutes it takes to sprint from the parking garage to class in case you oversleep.
Learning to navigate the perils of the parking garage can be a commuter’s worst nightmare. While gold permit-holders have the run of floor one, commuters have an uphill battle — literally. Most commuters have inadvertently gotten stuck behind The Slowest Driver Ever while climbing the many levels of the parking garage. While you crawl at a tender 2 miles per hour up to that fourth level, prepare your gams for a lively sprint to class or you just might miss that lesson on underwater basket weaving after all.
After an eventful day of classes, writing papers and dodging seagulls, there is one more feat for the commuter student: the stairs. Oh, the stairs. (And I don’t mean the stares from the seagulls, which can be equally as bad.) Running up the stairs to get to whatever level you parked on earlier in the day should qualify as an Olympic event. If you’re not one for steep steps and asthma attacks, then you have another option: the elevator. If you’re willing to brave the confines of the elevator, you will most likely enjoy a brief, awkward ride with 20 of your closest strangers. I highly recommend staring at the wall pensively. It’s quite the alternative to texting.
Then comes the most majestic part of commuting: getting to explain it to someone else. Occasionally a friend you haven’t seen in a while/your Great Aunt Mable/the hobo you just met on the bus will ask you about your college experience. The words “academic rigor” and “independent studies” will be slung around like nobody’s business.
And just when you thought you could avoid it, you will get asked The Question: “So, are you living on campus?” No. Didn’t you see that green sticker on my car? And perhaps worse than the initial (well meaning) nosiness of getting asked The Question is getting asked The Second Question: “Then are you living at home?” With cost of room and board so high, you very well might be. “There’s nothing wrong with that,” they’ll say to you; your commuter face suppressing a smile.
And maybe there isn’t.
erinmurphy@mail.usf.edu
