2008 Woodie Awards
Freshman recounts experience at AC as first year commuter
Nicole Dellasanta
Issue date: 4/16/04 Section: Viewpoint
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There are three questions Assumption students ask whenever they meet another Assumption student for the first time. Okay, maybe four, if you count asking each others' names, but the primary questions that always seem to spew out instinctively are, "What's your major?" "What year are you?" and "Where do you live on campus?"
I always answer the first, "English," with confidence and a pathetically large amount of gusto, and reply to the second, "Freshman," with slight defense in case I happen to be speaking with those wise and slightly intimidating prophets known as upperclassmen. But when I'm inevitably asked the third, I hesitate, because I know exactly the response I will receive. When I reply, "I'm actually a commuter, I live about ten minutes away," the immediate and instinctive reaction I've received from nearly everyone thus far is a long "Ohhhh," followed by a short gaze at me that blends pity with slight scientific interest.
Sure, I understand that this is probably the most close-knit and sheltered community-oriented school in the country, if you don't count the Amish schools, of course, and I understand that the housing on campus is for the most part well-kept and more than decent to live in. I further understand that commuters make up only about ten percent of Assumption's student population.
This does not change the fact, however, that I wake up every morning in the house I've lived in all my life, grab my keys, get in my car, and drive to school. Nor does this make me an alien or some kind of hapless insect who crawls from underneath her rock every morning and suffer the agonizing ten minute drive to school. I'm simply a person who drives a car to her classes and other school activities and tries her best to breathe in as much of the friendly Assumption atmosphere as she can.
Commuting was not my first choice as a means of transportation to and from my classes. I had wonderful visions last year, while I was bleary-eyed and still half-asleep in my eight a.m. advanced-placement biology class, of rolling out of bed at ten in the morning and shuffling pleasantly off to class in the adjacent building, still in my pajamas. That vision evaporated when the verdict came on the financial situation; commuting to college was my cheapest move. I was extremely disappointed, to say the least, because I was aware that this was perhaps the most pivotal time of my life thus far; I would be meeting an entirely new group of people that I would be spending the next four years with. How could I really get to know people and make lasting friendships if I couldn't share the experience of living away from home for the first time?
I always answer the first, "English," with confidence and a pathetically large amount of gusto, and reply to the second, "Freshman," with slight defense in case I happen to be speaking with those wise and slightly intimidating prophets known as upperclassmen. But when I'm inevitably asked the third, I hesitate, because I know exactly the response I will receive. When I reply, "I'm actually a commuter, I live about ten minutes away," the immediate and instinctive reaction I've received from nearly everyone thus far is a long "Ohhhh," followed by a short gaze at me that blends pity with slight scientific interest.
Sure, I understand that this is probably the most close-knit and sheltered community-oriented school in the country, if you don't count the Amish schools, of course, and I understand that the housing on campus is for the most part well-kept and more than decent to live in. I further understand that commuters make up only about ten percent of Assumption's student population.
This does not change the fact, however, that I wake up every morning in the house I've lived in all my life, grab my keys, get in my car, and drive to school. Nor does this make me an alien or some kind of hapless insect who crawls from underneath her rock every morning and suffer the agonizing ten minute drive to school. I'm simply a person who drives a car to her classes and other school activities and tries her best to breathe in as much of the friendly Assumption atmosphere as she can.
Commuting was not my first choice as a means of transportation to and from my classes. I had wonderful visions last year, while I was bleary-eyed and still half-asleep in my eight a.m. advanced-placement biology class, of rolling out of bed at ten in the morning and shuffling pleasantly off to class in the adjacent building, still in my pajamas. That vision evaporated when the verdict came on the financial situation; commuting to college was my cheapest move. I was extremely disappointed, to say the least, because I was aware that this was perhaps the most pivotal time of my life thus far; I would be meeting an entirely new group of people that I would be spending the next four years with. How could I really get to know people and make lasting friendships if I couldn't share the experience of living away from home for the first time?