Boo – the cat – woke me up at 5:20 am this morning. Time to feed him. It is amazing that they can tell time like that. That is the time I used to get up every morning to hop on a train to get to work. Today, I report, I gave him some food, had a glass of water, and happily went back to bed to 8 am. It was wonderful! I smiled from ear to ear as a fell back to sleep.
This has been a tough couple of months! Everyone is getting sick. Colleen still can’t kick this damned bug after what now seems like months. But there are little victories, not having to take the train is one of them.
Commuting can really be an issue of equity. Stay with me to the end on this one…
I have a near perfect marriage. There are only a handful of things that can set us off. The commute is one of them. If I were to drive at 5am, it takes me roughly 35 minutes to get to work. Of course if I leave at 7am, I am likely going to spend 60-75 minutes in the car. And the return trip somehow always takes an extra 15 minutes. It’s dangerous too. One day I saw a car that blew up after running into bridge and I couldn’t help but thinking that will be me if I keep driving. This is why I take the train.
The morning train is wonderful. Its always on time and the train is usually empty enough that I spread out a little bit, get some grading done, prepare for classes, or doing some writing. So the 50 minutes I am on that train is actually some of my most productive time. Of course, there is the 20 minute walk to the train station, 15 minutes waiting for the Adelphi shuttle, and another 10 minutes for the shuttle to drive to campus; making the trip roughly 95 minutes every morning.
Heading in the opposite direction is usually terrible. I am exhausted from a day at work. The train is crowded and I usually have the choice of standing or sitting on the floor. I usually spend the time in ridiculous banter with my friends about politics on our text chain. However, the trip is slightly faster. It usually takes 90 minutes to get home – when the train is on time.
I am happy to report that I have not taken the train in more than a month.
People under estimate how difficult a long commute is. About three hours of my day is spent in transit. So if I work a normal 9 hour day in the office I am going to put in a full 12 hours, at least five times a week. It is exhausting. There are sometimes I just get so mad that I am stuck in the rain or a train is delayed that my hands curl up tight in a ball and I just stand there shaking in a sort of rage. Anger happens, it defuses, and everything is fine again, of course except for my time or my health…
A few years ago, I got a bad case of bronchitis that ultimately turned into pneumonia. I was sick but it got worse because 5+ days a week, I was up early in rain, sleet, or snow walking to the train. At times, I would get so drenched that not a part of my body was dry. There were times when Colleen would take me to the train or I’d take a taxi. We didn’t like to have Colleen take me most of the time because we had to wake up and then package up Rosie for the short trip. It often took twice as long to do that than it took to just walk, so that unless it was really bad I would walk. For the taxi, if I had enough money to pay for a taxi, I would just buy a second car and drive that to the train. All that time in the cold damp environment was not good for my illness and it just kept getting worse.
Even if you only work a half of a day it is still painful. You still have to do that full three hours of commuting. You may only get paid for a half day, but you are still putting in a near full day of effort. In hindsight, what I should have done was just taken a week or two off of work to recover, but then who does that before tenure?
Trying to get ahead is difficult as well. I was often asked to take additional classes beyond the regular teaching load when I was a younger faculty member. There are pros and cons to this. One pro is the nearly $5K of extra cash you get for each class. That extra class was from 6pm to 7:40pm. To get home from there with all the connections I would usually get home around 10:45pm! If you need to take the trains after 8pm, you are likely going to find reduced schedules and poor connections. It is difficult. So I got that extra $5K twice a year! But that meant I had to work/commute 6am – 10:45pm twice a week. THAT’S NUTS!
Folks who live in poorer areas around NYC have poorer access to public transit. This adds up in additional commute time. While Smithtown is by no means a poor community it has significantly less access than folks closer to the city.
Working until 7:40pm twice a week to make a couple of extra bucks is reasonable. Doing that feels like the good ole following the American Dream. However, something seems off when this translates to me not getting home until 10:45pm and not getting to see my family. They literally got up after I leave and go to bed before I got home. It seems that just trying to push ahead a little is near impossible. However, the $10K was needed and it was expected of me as a junior faculty member so it was a net positive. Whatever that means?
As a eighth year faculty member and chair, I have more choices and some more control over my schedule. This makes the commuting situation on the side of bearable, but just barely. We are also in a better financial situation now. There have been days I just hopped in an Uber and said take me home.
I made it. I survived. BUT: I am watching two of my transit buddies on the other side of tenure struggling with this daily. I see the countless number of students who can’t afford living on campus struggling with similar commutes.
I remember walking by the Napper Tandy’s in Smithtown on my way home on a warm fall night. The place was full of people watching Monday night football and having drinks outside. Everyone in the bar was be laughing. I would get so angry. It was 10:45 pm. If I stopped walking and had a beer I would have just fallen asleep where I stood. So instead I carried my 50 lbs of books home, slurped down some food, and crashed for the night.
Our students and young faculty have it tough! They are asked to do near impossible things. But we also live in an area where people are often forced to take long commutes for economic reasons. We under appreciate students and young faculty who have to do this all the time. This makes something hard literally damaging to your health.
Leave a Reply