Bless the Commuters of Southbury

As I write this, I am not at my home in Southbury, curled up on the couch with my laptop looking out at the community of naked trees behind the house, a warm cup of coffee in hand.

I am an in an office building in Manhattan.

I’ve become a commute these past few months. In mid-January I began an Editorial Internship at CollegeHumor, a - you guessed it - humor website. I’ve been going every week, for four days a week, since then. It has been an incredibly fun and gratifying experience so far. I’ve gotten to spend time around dozens of like-minded people, and I’ve even gotten a couple of articles onto the front page of the site.

And while that’s all well and good, there’s one part of this lifestyle change that is neither well nor good: commuting.

Southbury does not have a huge group of residents commuting to New York City everyday, but I know they’re out there. And to those in that exclusive group, I applaud you because commuting is freaking exhausting.

I usually take the train from Southeast station in Brewster, NY. It takes about half an hour to get there from Southbury. From there, it gets more complicated.

Picture a Metro-North commuter train, (if you’ve been on one) —You walk onto the train, and you’re faced with two rows of seats. On one side of the aisle are three adjacent seats, on the other, two.

Southeast is the first stop on the line, so you’re getting onto an empty train. You are by yourself. Which set of seats do you sit in? The instinct is to choose the side with two seats, as you are by yourself. I’ve done this many times, but I’ve learned my lesson.

You sit on the side with three seats. You know why? Because that train fills up fast. And before you know it, you’re going to have a complete stranger sitting next to you. Would you rather have that stranger directly next to you, or with a nice buffer seat in between? Exactly.

Beyond trying to avoid as much human interaction as possible, commuting is terribly exhausting. I arrived at the office at 9:30 a.m. this morning, after having woken up at 6:30 a.m. Comparatively, most of my co-workers live in the city, and they probably didn’t drag their butts out of bed until almost 9:00 a.m. When you factor in the commute back as well, that’s a whole lot of time on the road, and not a whole lot of time spent at your actual home.

It makes me wonder if the commuting lifestyle is really worth it. Sure, if you lived in a town closer to the city, further on down the line, then it might make sense. But why not go all the way and live in the city and embrace its lifestyle. That’s what I plan to do if the opportunity arises. Don’t get me wrong, I think Southbury is swell and all, but I can’t keep doing this my whole life. The buffer zone can only get you so far.

CORRECTION: The original version of this article addressed readers who have been a metro-north commuter train; it should have addressed readers who have been on a metro-north commuter train.  We regret the error.