Commuting Revisited

Posted November 17, 2025 by Emmy Mahoney

For my very first blog post, I wrote about tips for commuting to and from Simmons. My three main tips were to listen to audiobooks, call your friends, and listen to your favorite pump up playlist. Well, I have really put those tips to the test. This past summer, I moved even further from Simmons, and my commute has increased from an hour and fifteen minutes to two and a half hours. Having done this commute for half a semester now, here is what I have learned. 

Listening to audiobooks or a really good playlist are great tips, but calling your friends is by far the best tip that I can recommend. I have informed my friends of these extended periods of time where I am free to talk on the phone, and it has been wonderful. Much of my commute is spent catching up with my people, learning what’s new in their lives, and laughing. Sometimes, I enjoy our conversations so much, I take the long way home. 

One new tip that I would like to share is practicing another language. For example, I like to practice Russian by talking to myself. This includes talking about my class, my plans for the weekend, or anything else that comes to my mind. Another example of practicing is listening to music in that language. I have both a playlist with only Russian songs, as well as a playlist of both English and Russian songs. Singing the songs or even just listening to them counts as practicing! Additionally, there are a lot of great podcasts for practicing your target language, if that is more your style. 

Another new tip is preparing yourself for class. Now you can’t write an assignment and drive, but spending some of the commute thinking about the material you have read can be really beneficial. While thinking about readings, I often come up with questions to ask my professor and thoughts that I can share in class discussions. Commuting to class can be difficult, but hopefully some of these tips–tested by a commuting professional–will help make it more manageable.