By Darien Pittman
It seems like whenever people feel like they’re exhausted, tired, or completely out of it, people don’t usually turn to weather as the culprit for the change in mood. However, traveling a great distance through terrible weather can drain the energy out of a person, long before they arrive at their destination. This is normally the case for many of the students that attend Five Towns College.
Five Towns has a large group of commuting students that come from the five boroughs. Some use public transportation like the LIRR and MTA Bus service, while others travel by automobile. The common denominator that causes problems for both commuting students is bad weather. According to Randy Class, “Weather doesn’t affect me normally, but as far as travel goes, it takes a lot out of me.” Randy is a commuting student who travels from the Bronx to Dix Hills every Tuesday and Thursday. The average travelling time of that commute is about three hours. With that being said, one can imagine that the trip is much longer with the various delays due to unbearable conditions. For students like Randy, who travel a great distance, getting to school is half the battle. Train and bus service delays can put students in a bad mood more than the weather itself.
Commuters who travel by car have slightly different, yet similar issues with the weather conditions as well. Snow is the main cause for the potential problems for most drivers, especially students who travel to Five Towns. Snow also causes many frustrations for students who have to shovel snow out of snowbanks or drive through treacherous black ice. According to Norman Obadiru, a commuting student at Five Towns, the weather “hinders a certain amount of relaxation time when you have to shovel snow away from your car.”
Weather has an effect on students who dorm at the college as well. Some enjoy the fact that school is closed, and they can enjoy a day off. However, some students have a very different opinion of snow days. Timberlin Nunez, a Five Towns resident student states that, “Every time it snows, I don’t smile. When we don’t have classes due to snow, it bothers me. It pushes all the classes behind schedule, and that’s pretty frustrating.” When looking back on the blizzards that have hit the Northeast for the past two years, school closings have been plentiful. They place students and faculty in unfortunate positions as they are forced to speed up curriculum and push back tests and midterms. While weather does have a direct effect on mood, there are many students who are far more frustrated by the harsh commute and school closings. Thank goodness it’s spring!
