Let’s be real-a large portion of York’s student body is made up of commuters. The length of these commutes is wide in range, with some taking fifteen minutes and others taking over an hour. I fall on the latter end of that scale. It’s not fun, and living north of Toronto in the middle of nowhere (I don’t even live in a town, it’s technically called a hamlet) introduces a whole new world of struggles. Here are my four major commuter struggles!
1. Waking up at ridiculous hours so you can make that 8:30 class
This one speaks for itself. On a regular school day, I usually wake up around six A.M to make it to class on time. Eight thirty classes? Those usually require an extra hour so I can make it to a train or beat the rush hour traffic I would run into if I left later. How do I survive? Mastering the art of timing my naps on the train.
2. The lesser-known circle of hell: Traffic
As mentioned above, traffic, especially on the 400, is a special kind of hell. If I don’t time our departure just correctly, I’m going to get stuck and watch that not-so-bad one hour, turn into a painful two or three hours. One time, I left home at 10:30 A.M, hoping to get to school early and relax before my 1:30 class. Hit traffic and didn’t get to school until just before 1:30.
3. Struggling to make friends who live nearby
Remember how I mentioned living in the middle of nowhere? I’ve met a total of two people at school who are kind of from neighboring small towns Out of those two people, only one had heard of, and knew where exactly it was that I lived. Now, this struggle of living in an unknown part of Simcoe County isn’t common to everyone, but it is common for commuters to make friends, only to find out that all of you live in opposite directions. At least there’s (hopefully) public transit!
4. Choose your money-sucker: paying for gas or paying for public transit
Referring back a few points: transportation. Getting to York can be incredibly expensive, especially for people who live further away. In more heavily populated areas, residents often have a wider variety of options such as the TTC, GO Transit, YRT, and other local public transits. However, whether you take PT or your car, things add up. Gas, tickets, tokens, presto cards, they’re all expensive. Thank goodness for GO’s student discounts, otherwise my rides would be a lot harder to fork out money for.
Commuting can definitely be a pain, for these reasons and more, but it isn’t entirely bad. People can have any reason to commute instead of live on residence, whether it be for health reasons, financial reasons, familial reasons or you simply enjoy your home and want to stay there. However your commute is, best of luck and may you find favor with the traffic gods!