Commuter Blues: Freedom Leaves Student Feeling Out of The Loop

After spending two years living on campus, I decided to be a “big girl” and move off campus.

Unfortunately, my dreams for an apartment were killed when I realized all of the expenses, as well as the fact that my job at Starbucks is hardly paying the bills.

So, I moved back home and decided to try the elusive life of a commuter.

It’s only been one week so far, but I hate it already. No matter what time I get up in the morning, I am perpetually fifteen minutes late. This creates a most uncomfortable situation when you stagger into class, heaving and out of breath (I’m a little out of shape, all right?) and realize you just walked into someone’s presentation.

It is clear to see the total separation commuters feel from campus life, unless they are heavily involved. I find my friends on campus constantly twittering about their plans and meet ups in between classes, and often I get the “Hey we’re all meeting for lunch” call as I am driving out of West Parking Garage.

I feel relatively disconnected from my former campus life, but in a sense, I am not too disappointed so far.

It is rather relaxing to drive away from the hustle and bustle of people milling around and escape to a place that is home and not a dorm room.

It makes me feel a bit more grown up with this escape, and less stuck in a typical college scene of hearing people bickering and stumbling around at all hours of the night.

What is bothersome though is the lack of involvement that I feel now. I am on campus, go to class, say hello to people in passing and then I’m gone. I walked around Vaughn the other day and found tons of sign up sheets for clubs and organizations already past deadline because I wasn’t on campus that day to sign up for them.

Obviously priority was given to those who were in the vicinity to show interest, but it sort of broke my heart to not be able to sign up for auditions for drama productions, all because I found the flier on a Friday and not a Thursday.

Are other commuters feeling like this?

Maybe it is just a case by case basis, because I am pretty sure that others are feeling a bit more “in the know,” but for me I am seeing that commuter’s have their fair share of ups and downs.

Kristen Vasquez can be reached at kvasquez@ut.edu.