This is mostly going to be a common sense post. Over the past two months I've come to appreciate living in a very convenient area. In the picture above, I'm standing on the balcony just outside of my apartment. Over my left shoulder you can see Ruby Hospital and just behind is the Health Science Center where I commute every weekday for classes. Walking from the apartment to classes takes only 8 minutes so I have little need to own a car at the moment. I do have one back in California, but I wasn't too excited about the proposition of driving to West Virginia. Next year, when clinicals begin in Pittsburgh or Charleston, I'll more than likely need to buy one.
There are a lot of great things about living close to where you work or study.
- My commute time is only about 8 minutes one-way. I'm not certain but I imagine that for the average person, their commute time may be anywhere from 20-30 minutes. Short commute times mean more time for studying and sleeping. When you count the number of minutes saved per day over the course of a year it really adds up!
- If I forget a laptop, textbook or notebook, I can quickly run home, grab it and be back in time for class.
- I don't have to bring my lunch to school, nor do I have to make lunch early in the morning. I can walk home, get a bite to eat and be back for classes in no time. This also means I can avoid paying for $4 coffee just by walking back home. The price of food at the cafeteria is pretty reasonable, but with home so close by, you have the entire pantry and refrigerator as your selection.
- I don't have to worry about paying for parking either. No need to bend over at the gas station. (Although if I ride with someone I'll usually offer to pay for gas money. I can say for certain that the people here are much more courteous and obliging than some of the other places that I've been to.) Morgantown is notorious for bad traffic on game days and during bad weather. No more road rage for this student. When it snows, I don't have to scrape the snow off of the car and I don't have to worry about fish-tailing on a thin sheet of ice into a telephone pole.
- Walking to school also gives me some limited exercise. It's only 15-30 minutes everyday, but if you can kill two birds with one stone, go for it.
There has only been one drawback to walking to campus that I can think of. The winters here are pretty darn cold, so walking to and from school can sometimes mean walking for 8 minutes through Cocytus, the 9th level of Dante's Inferno. Though if you're cold-blooded then you don't need to worry.
Scroll to the bottom of this page if you want a description of the 9th level of hell.
Otherwise, living close to where you work or study is really great! Once you've been accepted into a PA program, try to choose a place so that your commute is between 5-15 minutes. If you have the option to live with your family or parents, saving thousands of dollars on rent is usually a better deal than saving on time. If your family is in California, don't try to commute from California unless you're superman/superwoman. And if you are, what are you doing in PA school?
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