Which Commuter Are You?

Commuters here on campus are able to speak to a wide area of different roles here at Millikin. There are students here that spend a majority of their time here getting involved in campus-life through different organizations, campus-jobs, seasonal events, or sports. Commuters that spend most of their time on-campus are ones that actively prioritize their life here on campus. Being able to have some sort of background in the lives of others on campus is what most commuters are to accomplish when their energy is spent engaging with other students here at the school that may not be from the general area. Having an active lifestyle within campus-life helps ease the stress of trying to fit in with the community here and feeling isolated from everyone. 

Most students can struggle during the first couple of months trying to find their group of friends or people that they are able to relate to or come into contact with. However, students who have established experience with life on campus are able to help students feel welcomed and work on their start here. Life here as a commuter that engages with campus-life from the very start of their first semester as a student here can benefit them to staying well-connected with the resources like students and faculty, and keeping solid relationships with others that can carry into your profession whether that be through life-skills or the career itself. 

Now for commuters that are not as active on campus after classes are done, the life for them may surround ongoing responsibilities that require or interest them more than life on campus. Commuters like myself are most of the time exclusively here and paying for the classes leading up to the degree but that does not mean that there are not ever opportunities that we take to get to know others during or outside of class. There is not necessarily a down side to this particular lifestyle for campus-life. The only caveat that student commuters face is the likelihood of not being able to adequately connect with other students opposed to those that live on campus or other student commuters who have more of an involvement on campus.  

Whether you are a commuter that spends a great deal of extracurricular time here on campus throughout the semester or prefer to treat being here at the university as purely an education while prioritizing and maintaining your life outside of school is all perfectly reasonable. As a commuter that spends the majority of time and life outside of campus, I would say that I do miss out on some engagements that potentially would get better connected through the community here. That said, I have managed to be able to find great friends while I have been here and make plenty of life-lasting positive memories. I would not say my life surrounds my studies but rather I choose to prioritize my life outside of school more than campus-life. Being a commuter is a great option of how you live as a student because it allows commuters with lifestyles like mine or the opposite to enjoy while learning the best of both worlds of being a college student.