Every now and again, I think about what my life would have been like if I had ended up living on campus instead of staying at home in Sherwood Park. I’m very fortunate that I was able to save money by doing this, but I sure didn’t save time taking the bus for two hours a day over the course of my five years in school. Being in a sorority has also offered me a lot of temptation to live on campus in my chapter’s house. Many women I know (even those who live relatively close by) have chosen to stay there during school. Plus, I think it might have been fun to get to experience that stereotypical “college experience”. Here’s the five (very complaint based) struggles of commuting to campus on the bus.
It takes a long time.
Between being in two demanding student groups, classes, and working part-time on campus, I spend a lot of my time there and on the bus each day. As students, we’re all very busy people and would definitely benefit from those extra few hours we spend on the bus being used elsewhere
You’re bound to an inconvenient schedule.
When it takes an hour to get to school, and the bus only comes every half an hour, you need to be on time to avoid missing almost an entire class! Nevermind the fact that the bus might run only once an hour in the evenings and not at all on the weekends.
Road closures and construction are extra terrible.
When things like this happen and the bus has to take another route, it knocks at least ten minutes off of your schedule. Suddenly, the bus that was supposed to give you fifteen minutes to walk to class changes to two futile minutes of jogging. Sometimes the route might just be cancelled altogether, forcing you to take a more convoluted trip.
Bad weather brings bad mornings.
All of a sudden there’s a bad snowfall and your trip takes double the time it usually does. This normally wouldn’t be so bad, it’s great that they’re driving for the conditions and being safe on the roads. But if you weren’t lucky enough to get a seat and need to stand for more than forty-five minutes on the turbulent ride, you end up resenting the weather more than usual.
You have to bring everything with you, and if you forget something, forget about it.
When you’re on campus for a long time, you need a lot of things. Somehow you have to figure out how to fit a laptop, textbooks, and other necessities in a bag that you can actually handle carrying around. Only the select few actually succeed at this, while the rest of us have to decide whether or not we have the space to squeeze our lunch container in the bag on the way out the door.