Pros and Cons of Commuting
Commuting is when you regularly travel a considerable distance from your home and your job or school, and it sucks. There are some who have pointed out perceived benefits, but these people are the genuine Pollyannas of the world, not to be taken seriously. Check out the following pros and cons of commuting and see if you’re also an over-the-top optimist or if you agree that life is crap when you must commute.
Pros of Commuting
You can Master Time-Management
Commuting to work or school requires getting up at an ungodly hour in time to get yourself cleaned up and ready for the day. Unless you want to get fired or disciplined in class for being late, you have no choice but to enter the rat race. The positive qualities involved with this achievement include commitment, perseverance, organization, planning, and blah-blah-blah.
It Means you Have Your Own Vehicle
The fact that you have a vehicle you can commute in makes you a very fortunate person. Congratulations! You don’t have to depend on a bus, a train, Uber, or a scooter to get where you need to go. If you’ve never gone without your own transportation mode, you ought to try it sometime. Then you’ll hate your commute at least a little bit less.
You Learn your Way Around
By doing all that driving, including occasional detours to avoid stand-still traffic, you become acquainted with the area. You can get around. You learn where places are that you never knew about. Knowing how to navigate can be a benefit, or so they say.
You Learn About Yourself
The time in your day that is unaccounted for is usually very limited, when you are a commuter. The benefit is that you learn what is really most important to you. We all tend to make time for what really matters the most to us. All the peripherals are eliminated because there’s just no time for them. Unfortunately, one of the peripherals is being able to stop, for once, and smell the daisies.
Cons of Commuting
Never Sleeping In
Commuters have to get up before the cock crows. You can forget about punching the snooze button for very long, since your sleep is so short, you can’t afford to start the alarm too early. You might think you can catch up on sleeping in over the weekend, but that won’t work. See the next con.
Weekends are Catch-Up Days
If you commute to work or school, your life is little more than driving and eating your meals. You must set aside time in the evening to get everything ready for the next morning, since there’s no time in the mornings to race around getting organized. Since everything else was neglected all week, the weekend is when you catch up. Grocery shopping, laundry, bill paying, house cleaning, and more takes up all your time. When can you ever simply enjoy your weekend?
Traffic
There is so much that can go wrong with traffic, it’s ridiculous. Traffic jams, fender benders, encounters with people who have road rage, getting a flat tire, running out of gas, and experiencing engine trouble are just a few of the many things that suck about being in traffic during daily commutes.
If you feel strongly about the nightmare that is your commute, get a traffic jam t-shirt from Life is Crap. Another funny-not-so-funny t-shirt shows a fender bender. It helps to laugh about it because it’s doubtful you’re a one-in-a-million Pollyanna forced into a daily commute.
