– courtesy of an older, somewhat jaded commuter who would like to remind you that although going to UBC is pretty awesome, even as a commuter, there are harsh realities you will have to face beyond sitting in rush hour.
My dream for the long run involves travelling the world, having a meaningful and adventurous career and maybe my own hovercraft. My dream for the rest of my undergrad degree, however, has become a comfortable studio conveniently placed in the middle of campus and potentially overlooking the ocean. And I had it for a moment, until reality slapped me in the face. I could just quote Jimmy McMellan to summarize what happened, but that might be a minor exaggeration of my circumstances. In a nutshell, my plans for a second co-op work-term were annihilated by two-semester requisites for my degree, and 4 months of full-time work (at least the kind undergrad’s are paid to do) is not going to get me through 8 months of residence and living expenses.
I once argued to someone the pros and cons of living at residence as opposed to living at home and commuting. If I cut out all of the nonsense I put in favour of commuting to convince her not to leave me alone in suburbia, here is the con list of living on residence:
- It costs a kazillion dollars.
- You don’t get to experience the unconditional love of your pet at the end of each day.
Except 1) her parents were paying for her residence, and 2) she had a cat, so my entire argument was invalid. Needless to say, my friend moved.
If you’re new to UBC and on the fence between commuting from home and living on residence your parents are offering to pay for, please allow me to prod you to the side of residence. Aside from not losing all the money your parents would have already put towards keeping your spot in residence at this point, I know from my friends (most of whom live on residence or in Vancouver) that it’s an amazing experience, it has taught them how to live on their own, and is the reason they know most of the people they know now. You’ll also notice that people on rez, when compared to those who have to commute long distances, generally haven’t developed a hunch from having to carry everything around with them, don’t pass out in libraries and/or swimming pool bleachers and have a life to talk about outside of school and sitting in traffic.
If you’re like me and your parents do not pay for residence because you live a commutable distance from UBC (which is fair, because the cost of living on res is a larger financial burden than tuition in most circumstances), then you have to go into this school year with an idea of what you want to experience in mind. You’re going to have to hunt down opportunities a lot more than a student that lives on rez because they’re not going to be so conveniently and constantly close by. And if what you want is to embrace the awesome-ness that is UBC and the experiences there are for you there, then it’s just rational that you’ll have to sacrifice some of your at-home life.
My second year was an example of this – I was working two part-time jobs, going to school for a couple of 12-hour days a week, and spending 2+ hours in a car or 3+ hours on a bus each of those days. I stopped searching out new experiences like I had in my first year because I was too preoccupied with things that constantly needed to get done. After my school year was in motion, if I hadn’t already made something a priority in my life there was no way I was going to squeeze it in among other things I had already fallen behind on (note the lack of blog updates).
I’ve since been adamant that, if you can afford to, don’t work during school if you’re a full-time long-distance commuter student. If you add up the time you spend in class, the time you spend on the road, and the time you should really be spending on studying and schoolwork, it adds up to being more than 40 hours a work. If you want to add extracurriculars, volunteering, maintaining your health, hobbies, and spending time with family into the mix, you already have a lot to manage.
I’m not trying to say there is nothing great about commuting. And if I actually precisely said that at one point, which I may have, I didn’t mean it. It’s just hard to be a commuter keener when trying to come to terms with the fact that while my friends are going to spend another year in a little utopian community where everyone is approximately their age and there are unlimited things to do, I’m going to be isolated in a tiny town filled with elderly people and listening “Same Changes” by The Weepies on repeat.
(I feel as though I should also say something about time management here… But considering my lack of skill in this area as proven by my infrequent posts throughout the school year and co-op, I don’t think I would take time management advice from me. So, to compensate, here is the post on Wikipedia that, ironically, no one would with time management issues would likely have the attention span to read beyond the first sentence)
So, if an incoming first year UBC student that will be commuting from the outskirts of Metro or further happens to read this, please don’t cry. You can enjoy all of the benefits of commuting later – which really do exist, contrary to what I said before. But for right now, you need to think about what you want out of this school year and start figuring out how you’re going to fit that into your everyday hectic life. It’s going to be surprisingly difficult to think about when you feel as though you should always have something else – driving, studying, working – to be focusing on for the time being.
UPDATE – Here is an article with a much cheerier outlook on commuting tweeted by the UBC CSI. I hopefully didn’t shatter your optimism for the school year as a commuter, but if I did, this should pick you up.
