Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Commuting to Salem State College

Since Salem State is a city over from where I currently reside, it is only logical that I commute. To go on a slight rant, I cannot for the life of me understand why people from Peabody, Beverly, Lynn, ect. feel that they need to live at Salem State. I of all people understand wanting to be on your own and not living at your house but to me it is completely unreasonable. If you and/or your parents are going to pay for you to live away from home go to a school that is far away. The only thing you are getting out of living at Salem State is debt and a bit more freedom than you usually would. If anyone can give me a a good reason to live on campus I'd love to hear it. I have my reasons why I hate commuting (which will be covered within the next few paragraphs) but I'd rather that than wasting all that money.

ANYWAY, commuting to SSC is the most reasonable for me. The reason I didn't go away to school was so I didn't have to pay to live on campus and save myself a couple thousand dollars a year. The first and by far most important thing that is needed to keep in mind when commuting to Salem State is, know where the good parking is. I quickly learned after the first few weeks of the first semester that if I was planning on getting to class in time I needed to devise a plan, a plan that would get me a parking spot and leave other students wishing they had my idea. Any class of 9am or earleir I got onto campus atleast an hour early. I did have one class on South Campus which I got to atleast an hour and 15 mins early because it was an 8am class. One day at around 12 midnight I actually went to South just to check out how many parking spots are filled my residents. Not to my surprise, more than half of the lot was full. By around 12/1 in the afternoon, it is a lot easier to find a spot on South as well as any other place you would like to park because the smarter kids take the early classes to get them out of the way. Another thing that seemed to work for me last semester was car pooling with my friend. Although it was only once a week that we were on campus at the same times it was much easier for us to get parking and be to class on time when we went together (that and the fact that she motivated me to actually go to class). Bottom line: Commuters, have more than one plan for parking as well as time to find that perfect spot!!

Although there are downsides to commuting, there are a lot of upsides as well. Ever been on campus all day and all you've wanted to do was just get away for a while? Well, I don't live on campus so I'm not stuck there. I go to class and then get to leave. I think if I did live on campus I would go completely out of my mind because I'd be around it all the time. I know that most of my friends that live on campus don't have their cars with them either. If I didn't have my car I don't know what I'd do with myself. It limits your freedom even more.

Personally, it's difficult to say if living on a school campus (not just Salem State, any campus) would be bareable for me but now laying down some commuter likes/dislikes, I've realized that I'm actually kind of happy I don't live on campus. It would be nice to not have to find a parking spot everyday but then again I feel like I have a lot more freedom than many people that do live there.

No comments:

Post a Comment