There’s not enough time! There’s not enough time!
More often than not, that thought runs through my mind. There’s not enough time! Every day is filled with way too many tasks to be done and not enough sleep to be had. I’d like to share a few things with you, so please, if you have a few minutes to spare, follow me as I take you through a typical weekday in the life of a commuter such as myself.
Mornings (Monday through Friday). You’re going to have to get up at 6:30am and it will be a struggle because most likely you were forced to go to bed late the night before doing homework. That said, you take a 15-minute snooze until 6:45am, and then you take another one until 7:00am even though you know it will make you late. You will have gotten to a point where you don’t even care because no matter what, you’re still going to be tired.
You go through the humdrum of the morning, brushing teeth, eating breakfast (most likely not), etc. This is going to take you an hour because you move like a snail. You have learned to dread weekday mornings because you’ve been doing the early morning commute since the 6th grade. You would think that you’d be accustomed to mornings, but unfortunately you’re not, and it’s still a constant day-to-day struggle for you.
Hopefully you can get out of the house by 7:30am. If not, kiss being on time for your 9:30am class goodbye.
Travelling (every day of the week, sadly). No matter what part of Manhattan you need to travel to, it will take you roughly 2 hours to get there and another 2 hours to get back because, according to your friends, you live in the “boondocks” of Queens.
You first take the Q83 bus to the Jamaica Center train station. It will be a 30-minute ride. Monday through Friday, you will board the E train to either 7 Ave-53 St to get the B/D or 42 St to get the 1. No matter which station or train you transfer to, you will pass a stop (either 59St or 66 St) that will forever remind you of your simultaneous love and hatred for Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music, Art and the Performing Arts, of which you are an alumnus. Continuing on the 1 train, you’ll get off at 137 St-City College and have to trek up that wretched hill to campus. Sarcastically, you’ll enjoy every minute of it. What’s even worse is if you take the B/D you’ll either have to walk what feels like forever from 145 St or if you’re bold and in the mood for some exercise, you’ll walk up ALL those steps at 135 St through the park. Don’t worry though, whichever route you take, you WILL be out of breath.
Heading home is the same ordeal. Two hours of travelling. Mondays, you’ll get home at 7:00pm, if you’re lucky. Tuesdays and Thursdays depend on scheduling. Wednesdays, it’ll be 10:00pm, if you’re lucky. Fridays, 8:00pm. Saturdays, 6:00pm, not bad. Sundays, you hope to make it home by 10:30pm the latest.
Mornings (on the weekend). As much as you wish you could sleep in, 7:00am is the best you can do on Saturday because you will have work from 10:00am-4:00pm and 8:00am is the best you can do on Sunday because you will have homework to do. The same humdrum of the morning applies here.
Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays: Joy! You have work! It’s only 6-7 hours of standing on your feet, walking around helping customers who, often times, don’t want to be helped. Not to mention, for all your hard work on the sales floor, you’ll be awarded a measly 30-minute break that feels like it’s over just as quickly as it begins. When not being distracted by the throngs of people coming and going through the store or listening to your coworkers making jokes, you’ll wonder how it is that you function on so little resting time.
But is there a bright side? The easy answer is no. You’d have to do some real digging to figure out if there really is. Besides the fact that you’ve been on just about every train line that exists today, the life of a commuter is not very peachy. The worst part of commuting is dealing with crowded buses and trains. It’s definitely no fun when you’re extremely tired and you have to ignore all of the people who are pushing the boundaries of your personal space. Everything you have to do has to be on a tight schedule because you have to constantly factor in how long it will take you to get from place to place and how long it will take you to complete your tasks. What a life to live. And God forbid you should ever want to do something fun. There’s just not enough time!
