We’re halfway through the semester, and I somehow haven’t made an article about commuting yet. To start off, it’s definitely not as bad as I thought.
I take the train to the Hoboken Terminal, and my journey usually lasts only 40 minutes. I do have a driver’s license and could drive, but I honestly really like the train. I don’t have to deal with morning traffic, and I have over an hour to myself. I’m not always the most productive person, but I definitely try to be. Being on a train limits me in a good way and forces me to pay attention. Studying in the Stevens library somehow always ends up in me searching for “tiramisu near me.” I once paid three times as much as I had intended for one. On the bright side, it came with a glass bowl.
I can’t get up and impulsively buy sweet treats while I’m forced to stay in my seat during my commute. Sometimes, I do order ahead with the Dunkin app, but that’s only when I’m really desperate. I mainly sit back, do my CS homework or HASS readings, and enjoy the ride.
If you’re a commuter, you should probably invest in Spotify Premium. I haven’t made the leap yet, and I regret it two times a day. The ads drive me insane. I could just close and reopen the app to skip them, but then I lose my spot in the playlist I’m listening to. And when I hit shuffle again, the same song plays.
Chromakopia came out a week ago, and like any other sane person, on Monday morning at 6 a.m., I tried listening to it. I hit shuffle and started listening to “Noid.” Then, an ad came. Then I reopened the app, and “Noid” started playing again. And then an ad came.
It’s not that “Noid” is a bad song; I just wanted to listen to the whole album, in order, preferably. Also, I’m not sure if it’s just me, but for some reason, “Taste” by Sabrina Carpenter plays after every single song I play. I have no idea why.
Another weird part of commuting is picking a seat. When I leave campus really early or really late, I always get a good seat and enjoy my ride stress free. But when I leave during rush hour, I never find a seat. The train has either three seaters or two seaters. Three seats are taken up by two people (leaving an empty seat behind them) and two seats are taken up by one person.
I used to always claim two seats, but for some reason, whenever I pick one now, someone always sits next to me. It’s not the end of the world, but it is a little confusing (and cramped). Once, I put my backpack up on the seat next to me, and some guy just sat on top of my backpack. If he asked or just looked at me, I would’ve moved my backpack. He did not need to sit on top of it. Ever since that incident, I’ve been claiming the three seaters.
The final annoying part of commuting is the train times. Practically every club I want to join starts their meetings at 9:15 p.m. That would mean taking the 11 p.m. train! Walking to the terminal every day from Stevens is annoying enough; I do not want to be doing that moments before midnight. Not to mention, I usually get to Stevens at 8 a.m. I’m already not too thrilled to be fifteen miles from home for fifteen hours.
As annoying as everything is, I still have my commuting-ty (commuting community). Each time I see someone my age with a backpack walking onto the train to Hoboken, we share an understanding smile and nod as we start our journey to Stevens.
