I never thought I would say that I missed commuting, but the other day while I was driving to work (now a 5 minute commute) I realized there are a few reasons why I miss the hour long commute:

1) I miss being able to sing as loud as I want to any song. It is so freeing sometimes to be able to sing at the top of your lungs to your favorite songs.  Whether I was trying to wake myself up in the morning or if I have had a bad day, I know that if I put in my favorite cd (Tickle Me Pink) I can turn up my stereo really loud and sing until I feel better.  I can’t sing worth shit, so being alone in my car is one of the only times I will attempt to sing and can pretend I sound good.

2) Listening to NPR. The way I find out about news is simple: I read it on the internet.  I do not watch the local or national news at night and do not read any newspapers.  When I was commuting I listened to NPR and for the first time in my life I knew what was going on in the world as a whole, not just the subjects that interested me.  I know that NPR has an app and a podcast and a website among other things, but it was just so simple to turn my radio to NPR and listen.

3) Catching up with friends on the phone. When I wasn’t singing at the top of my lungs or listening to the news I was on my phone calling my friends and family.  Commuting a minimum of 10 hours a week can really cut into your social life and an easy way to keep up with my friends was to call them on my drive home (the drive to work was too early to call most of them, so I would call my mom instead). Now I have more time to meet up with my friends, but I have lost touch with some that live in different cities or states that I just don’t talk to enough. Again, this is my own doing, I am just acknowledging it.

Despite missing those 3 things, I do not miss driving 10 hours a week to get to work.