Commuter

One of the things I like most about living in Jacksonville versus living in Harpers Ferry is how close everything is to me here. I'm sure I've exalted on more than one occasion how delighted I am that my mail comes to my house. If you've never lived somewhere without that luxury, you may not fully appreciate it. I bought my house because of (and I know it's a cliche) location, location, location. At that time, I thought I'd be teaching at my former university for the rest of my worklife. I could be at work in ten minutes. It was wonderful. I'm also close the the beach and shopping. Really, until two years ago (when my son moved to the other side of town), I didn't know much about any other part of Jacksonville. In those days my travel was within a small "quad" outlined by my sons' schools, the beach, my university, and our kind of connector road, referred to locally as JTB.

I started learning more about downtown when I began volunteering a few years ago, but that was usually once or twice a month, to the location and home. Now that my son works downtown and lives west of downtown, I've begun exploring more, especially when I go to see his band play. I'm fortunate to have to commute only three days per week (although on two of those days I commute twice, to different campuses). The college where I have been teaching since February is near my son's house, and I drive through downtown to get there and back, hence my greater familiarity with new areas. Depending on the time of day, it's not too bad, only a half hour. At the moment, though, my second class ends at 5:30, and my commute home seems longer every time. This isn't just my imagination; before the time change, I could be home in about forty-five minutes. Now it takes an hour, sometimes more.

After living in a remote location for so long (in addition to having to drive to get our mail, we had to go about ten miles to the grocery store; nothing was convenient to where I lived, except a big, beautiful lake and lots of trees), I let myself get spoiled being so close to everything, so now I'm a whiny baby when it comes to my twice a week long commute. It only makes me crave the full-time position at the closer campus more. That one is less than ten minutes away. I shouldn't complain -- and truly I'm not -- I'm grateful to be teaching again and didn't expect it to be easy to get to exactly where I want to be. Which is much closer to home. Apart from visiting my son and seeing his band, I'd be happy to go back to my quad.