Like most students here at the University of Toronto, I am a commuter student. As such, I spend a large portion of my time every day on our city's treasure: the TTC.
Unlike many of my peers though, my commute is not that long. I only really have to be on the TTC for half an hour to get to campus. I know, I'm blessed. I commend those brave souls who travel to campus all the way from places like Ajax! The sum of those individuals' commute is definitely not 41 minutes.
Yes -- I deliberately made a Sum 41 joke in 2014, I apologize for that.
Back to the subject at hand, yes, it's slightly annoying to put your life on pause to sit in public transit. Nevertheless, I've recently started to take a new perspective on it, and I've actually come to embrace my time on the TTC.
To quote the great Ferris Bueller: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
You don't actually have to have a miserable experience while commuting! It can even be *audible gasp* enjoyable.
Here's what I did:
My readings.
The Anthropology of Youth Culture!
I don't start new readings since I find it pretty difficult to start new readings in the frenzy of the TTC. However, I find it extremely helpful to re-read readings that I've already started or finished. While it is always advised that you look back at your readings, I perpetually ignore that fact, unless I'm on the TTC. Therefore, the TTC is a treasure to my GPA.
Read newspapers.
I came too late. No copies of the Metro were left.
I can't even explain to you how far behind in the real world I was until this summer. Yes, we have the Internet. But with the Internet comes videos of dogs reuniting with their owners after a year. Why in the world would I voluntarily skip out on that, and instead read about Rob Ford's $9-billion subway plan. It's sad to say this -- because I'm basically admitting I'm an old person -- but the subway excites me these days, because I know I will have time to just read the newspaper. Getting topical is becoming fun for me!
Listen to music.
Me trying to achieve the whistle register.
Sometimes I don't want to think -- sometimes I just want to put Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend on full blast through my earphones, and just wail my arms. This is honestly such a stress reliever for me, you don't understand. Sometimes it takes making a fool out of yourself to put everything back into perspective.
(Warning: Never try to listen to Landslide by Fleetwood Mac while alone on the subway, you may start thinking about life and stuff)
Sleep.
self-explanatory.
And that, folks, is how I realized, that the commuting part of being a commuter was not actually that bad.
So, UofT, what do you do on your commute?
self-explanatory.
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