Life Of a Commuter (Revision)

(Updated interviews)

As I was growing up and going to school I was lucky that I never had to travel too far to get to my destination. I actually would be able to get up only twenty minutes before class and still make it on time. That sense of comfort was obliterated once I graduated high school. I wanted to go to a “good” college and not Nassau Community College which was everyone’s fallback plan in high school. As I searched for schools to apply to I soon came to the realization that I will have to travel quite a bit to get to my destination, and to dorm, well that wasn’t an option financially. As the summer passed on, I narrowed my search down to St. John's University and Queens College, both on an equal plane in education and cost since St. John’s offered me a scholarship, so to me it ultimately came down to the time of transportation and the winner of that battle was obvious, as I am currently a St. John’s student.

The commute to school for me takes about forty minutes which includes 2 buses, but I usually give myself an hour in case of traffic on my route. Coming to St. John’s from my home in Elmont is pretty relaxing, but the cost of that commute leaves much to be desired. $76 for a monthly metro card is a whole week’s check for me, but I guess if I had a car gas money would’ve been quite a bit more expensive.

I had two of my friends who also commute to school answer some questions about their daily traveling to school. Justin Tehrani lives in Floral Park on Long Island and commutes with his car. He says it takes him about twenty minutes to get to school on

a normal day, and give or take five minutes for the level of traffic. Justin also states that the gas needed to travel on a consistent basis is leaving a significant burden on his wallet. Second contestant on my little survey was Syed Lahori from the same town as me, Elmont. His commute is similar to mine in which he takes two buses the N25 and the Q46. Syed also occasionally comes to school driving, so he is not totally dependant on mass transit, but he is an excellent source since he experiences both.

As I started to analyze the data I got from my friends, I noticed it had a good variety. My data includes one who drives, one who uses both public transportation and a car, and me using solely mass transit. However, I felt I need more substance as to why commuting is important or significant in the grand scheme of things. That “substance” can be anything, but my first guess would be the difference with commuters and dormers is the time they have to do their school work. To do this, I can ask some students who dorm about how and when they find time to sit down and hit the books, as opposed to my experience.

Tahmid Rahman is a cousin of mine who dorms over at NYIT in Old Westbury. I had an online interview with him to get some basic information about his work ethic and the distractions he comes across on a daily basis. Tahmid tells me that one major positive about the dorm life is that you are usually grouped with people who study the same major as you, so you always have someone to ask when you’re stuck on a question or anything like that. I asked Tahmid if he gets distracted with the fact that his friends are always around him, and his reply was “I can see that happening, but when you got scholarships riding, you tend to become more responsible with your time.”

Now back to the commuting aspect. There are many positives in commuting, but the flaws are there as well. One problem that I certainly feel with commuting to school is that it makes the whole experience feel like a job rather than something that can be enjoyable. I often times don’t feel like sticking around campus for a couple extra hours if there is an event going on later in the day or if there is a group of friends studying. If I were to dorm, I’d always be in the middle of the action and I can probably pick up some connections that can help me down the road. Another problem people may face is keeping in touch with their friends, especially those from Long Island, because we spent our high school years with people in our direct neighborhood. That may not be a problem to the kids who live in NYC because they can choose to go to a high school very far away if they choose. I have started friendships with people all over the country while at St. Johns but it’s difficult to keep up when I am commuting from home, while they dorm here on campus or when they go home on vacation. I can talk on and on about the differences between the dorm life and commuting but in the end, the cost is what keeps me as a commuter rather than a St. John’s resident.

What else can I use? That is what I am asking myself. I can do numerous things such as surf the web and find cold hard statistics comparing commuters and dormers on a whole sort of different aspects on their student lives, but I feel going straight to the source would make this paper more personal, and more inviting to readers. Asking the peers who play a role in your daily lives will get you much more indirect information than any book or web page can give, so I will continue to rely on the interview technique and expand on my thought about commuting.

Can't Wait For The Break

We have less than week left of school until our break, and it can't come soon enough. This spring break I'm not going on vacation, but I'll still make sure I have time to relax. The unusually warm weather we had earlier in the year may have been nice while it lasted, but all that really did was make this cold February even colder, because we were not used to the wind freezing our faces on the way to school. I'll make sure to spend a couple days at home just sleeping in mt warm room, and once that gets stale, I'll go out and complete some of my tasks

I'm in search for a new job, since the one I have now is not what I want to be doing...I work at Taco Bell. I have already applied to many places like Radio Shack, and Best Buy, and over the break I plan to head over to Roosevelt Field Mall and gather up some applications. To me working is essential because St. Johns isn't to light on the pockets even with scholarships. Whatever amount I can make is worthy to keep up with my daily life and not always having to ask my parents for money...asking them gets pretty pathetic after a while. Another good thing about having my own job is the fact that the money I earn is MINE. I don't have to ask anyone if I can buy this or if I can buy that, rather I can buy the things I think I need or want, and since I consider myself pretty responsible, so I wouldn't buy anything that would be looked down upon.

This Spring Break is just what I need, relaxing and working at the same time, so many things to do, but I can do them on my own pace. School is my first priority, so I always have to push the smaller things to the breaks, so next week is when I get my life on track.

ABC News: Bone of Contention

Feb. 26, 2007 — In late 1982, Tova Bracha's family moved into a modest apartment in a cluster of cookie-cutter housing units in Talpiyot, a Jerusalem neighborhood. It's a place better known for its body shops and illicit casinos than earth-shattering archaeological finds.

A few days after moving in, her children were playing in the construction debris downstairs and came across what James Cameron's new documentary, "The Lost Tomb of Christ," maintains is the tomb of Jesus and his family.

The kids wiggled into the tomb and found burned Torah scrolls and 10 small caskets bearing the 2000-year-old bones of an ancient Jewish family. Six of them had inscriptions bearing the names Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the Greek version of Mary Magdalene.

Bracha immediately phoned the archaeologists from Israel's Antiquities Authority. They sealed the tomb and studied the bones. For years, it was just another of the many tombs of ancient middle-class families who lived roughly in the time of Jesus.

Archaeologist: More Than 900 Tombs Like This One

Two years earlier, Israeli archaeologist Amos Kloner was the first to find the tomb. He found the tomb and the ossuaries — the urns or vaults used to hold the bones of the dead — interesting but of no particular archaeological importance. He said there are more than 900 buried tombs just like the "Jesus" tomb within a 2-mile radius of Talpiyot. Of them, 71 bear the name Jesus and two Jesus, son of Joseph. The tomb in Talpiyot is one of them. But the inscription, he said, was barely decipherable and therefore questionable.

At the time, Jesus was a very common name, as was Mary. But the cluster of all those names together, Jesus, Joseph Mary, not to mention what the filmmakers claim is Jesus' son, Judah, son of Jesus, is indeed unusual. Simply because the tomb is labeled a tomb that "belonged to a Jesus, doesn't make it the tomb of Jesus Christ," Kloner told ABC News.

Jerusalem-based biblical anthropologist Joe Zias goes a step further to discredit Cameron's documentary. "What they've done here," Zias said, "is they've simply tried in a very, very dishonest way to try to con the public into believing that this is the tomb of Jesus or Jesus' family. It has nothing whatsoever to do with Jesus."

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Entertainment/story?id=2905662&page=1

Thinking Back

The date was November 28^th, and I just remembered I needed to get a service paper done for my Discover NY class. I thought of it as a nagging burden, and just something I had to tough out and get over with. The next day I visited two of my friends who attends Queens College and as I was there I seen a flyer from their MSA (Muslim Students Association) about a clothing drive that they were holding for the everlasting victims in Palestine. I glanced at the paper, but didn’t think about it much because I was pretty sure only Queens College students can join in, but I was wrong. My friend and I decided to go through with it and help out with the drive which was to be held on December 1^st in the Queens College Alumni Theatre. That nagging burden certainly became a blessing when the day of the drive was completed.

The clothing drive was eye opening, because I usually am not pro active in my community, which I regret, but am very aware of the state our world is in today and also me being a Muslim. I wasn’t anticipating much with this drive because it being for Muslim’s half way around the world, I thought there would only be a small number of support since there are a lot of uneasy feelings politically in the world right now, but I was wrong. The drive began at 10 am with a boat load of people and ended at 3pm with just as much people wanting to help the cause. The most enjoyable part of the service was seeing the variety of people coming in, there were a bunch of people of all races and all cultures, giving off several kinds of donations from clothing and toys to money. The week prior to the drive had been full of nice, warm days but this day, Saturday, it was very cold and a lot of rain showers. My take was it was a symbol of the struggle we were trying to relieve. Just reading about the situation in Palestine is tough, but living through it…that would be unbearable.

My duty during the drive was to box clothing and other forms of attire, such as hats and several other items. In total I estimate I boxed about 15 boxes, and if I may add, these were pretty large boxes. Many of the clothes were worn, and were probably hand-me-downs which came to no use to the donators, but it was still very useful. Others gave brand new clothes, and I think that is very thoughtful of those donators to not only think about the people suffering, but also to spend time and money to buy them fresh clothes. I assume this courtesy helps on the other end as well because the people receiving these clothes will not feel degraded by accepting the clothes. Back to my job, the shipping of the clothing would take place on Monday so we placed the boxes in this allotted space where it would be picked up. By 2pm, the donations were done, but that was not the end of the event. The organization helped set up a lunch, for everyone who helped the drive as well as the donators who stayed around. During that lunch I met some fellow St. John’s students who were also helping out.

At first I considered doing a service was just a requirement for my DNY class and I would have to suffer for a day, but I was wrong. This experience was one that everyone should try to attain. There is a feeling of satisfaction in knowing you are helping people and making a difference in someone’s life. Knowing now about the MSA and all it brings to the table, I will definitely join the St. John’s MSA division when I get the chance next semester. As for now, I will look into other events and maybe even another charity drive or something out of the ordinary just to gather up experiences, because they can become very important in the future, and who knows what other great things it may lead to.

Commuter - Wiki

Commuting is the process of travelling between a place of residence and a place of work. Students who are enrolled at a college or university but who live off-campus are also typically referred to as commuters.

Commuting is largely a phenomenon which exists in industrialised societies, where access to modern modes of travel such as automobile, trains, buses and bicycles has enabled people to live far from their workplace. Prior to the 19th century most people lived at or within walking distance of their workplace. Modern commuting usually refers to people travelling to workplaces which are beyond their own towns, cities and villages.

The advent of modern commuting has had a large impact on life. It has allowed cities to expand to sizes which were previously not practical, and it has led to the proliferation of the suburbs.

-Commuter - Wikipedia

The Life Of a Commuter

As I was growing up and going to school I was lucky that I never had to travel to far to get to school. I actually would be able to get up only twenty minutes before class and still make it on time. That sense of comfort was obliterated once I graduated high school. I wanted to go to a “good” college and not the Nassau Community College which was everyone’s fallback plan. As I searched for schools to apply to I soon came to the realization that I will have to travel quite a bit to get to my destination, and to dorm, well that wasn’t an option financially. As the summer passed on, I narrowed my search down to St. John's University and Queens College, both on an equal plane in education and cost since St. John’s offered me a scholarship, so to me it ultimately came down to the time of transportation and the winner of that battle was obvious, as I am current St. John’s student.

The commute to school for me takes about forty minutes which includes 2 buses, but I usually give myself an hour in case of traffic on my route. Coming to St. John’s from my home in Elmont is pretty relaxing, but the cost of that commute leaves much to desire. $76 for a monthly metro card is a whole week’s check for me, but I guess if I had a car gas money would’ve been even more expensive.

I had two of my friends who also commute to school answer some questions about their daily traveling to school. Justin Tehrani, lives in Floral Park on Long Island and commutes with his car. He says it takes him about twenty minutes to get to school on a normal day, and give or take five minutes for the level of traffic. Justin also states that the gas needed to travel on a consistent basis is leaving a significant burden on his wallet. Second contestant on my little survey was Syed Lahori from Jackson Heights. His commute consists of two trains and a bus. He like me purchases a monthly metro card so that $76 haunts others as well. Syed tells me it takes him anywhere from a half hour to an hour to get to school.

As I started to analyze the data I got from my friends, I noticed it had a good variety. One who drives, one from Manhattan, and me, coming from the suburbs. However, I felt I need more substance as to why commuting is important. That substance can be anything, but my first guess would be the difference with commuters and dormers is the time they have to do their work. I plan to interview some St. John’s students who dorm and get their study patterns and compare them to my commuting peers.

What else can I use? That is what I am asking myself. I can do numerous things such as surf the web and find several statistics comparing commuters and dormers on a whole sort of different aspects on their student lives. At first glance I would assume dormers have the advantage academically because traveling to class isn’t a problem for them but then again going by what I heard of about the dorm life I would think there are many distractions with friends around you constantly. Whatever the case maybe, I will compare and contrast the way we interact and the way we learn.

A Major Change

As of February 15th 2007, I am undecided St. John's student. I was previously a Chem major, but with much insight on what I wish to do with my future, and what I enjoy I was able to come to the conclusion that Chemistry was not on my agenda. My current focus is on what majors St. Johns offers, and what catches my eye is Advertising Communications. I like to think of myself as very artistic, and I like the overall concept of the major from what I know right now. Of course there is much more research i need to do to actually commit, and anyways I cant officially enter that major until the end of this semester.

Another reason that I like Advertising is that it is in the Business field. I would like the business world where everybody starts from the bottom and works their way up the ladder, and maybe eventually a C.E.O of a Fortune 500 company and having enough money for you to enjoy life along with your friends and family.

As of now, I am taking core classes which would be accepted into the requirements for Advertising. My goal for right now...ace all my classes, which included this English course. I better get used to writing more often on this blog to ensure my GPA is top notch.

Addicted To the Computer?

"Kids and teens spent an average 2 hours 17 minutes hanging out with their parents and 1 hour 25 minutes participating in physical activity. Overall, the time that kids spend exposed to media increased more than an hour in the last 5 years - from 7 hours and 29 minutes daily to 8 hours and 33 minutes daily.

The results also indicated a significant trend among kids and teens - a practice the researchers referred to as "media multitasking," or using more than one form of media at a time. A quarter to a third of kids and teens say they use another type of media most of the time while watching TV, listening to music, or using the computer.

In addition, researchers found that many kids and teens may lack parental supervision when it comes to media exposure - two thirds of the kids and teens in the study had a TV, and half had a video game player in their rooms. And kids and teens with TVs in their rooms logged an average 1.5 hours more TV time than kids who didn't have an in-room TV set.

The Internet can be a wonderful resource for kids. They can use it to research school reports, communicate with teachers and other kids, and play interactive games. Any child who is old enough to punch in a few letters on the keyboard can literally access the world.

The number of hours adolescents spend in front of a computer climbed sharply from 1999 to 2004, a new study shows.

The average high school boy spent 15.2 hours a week using a computer in 2004, up from 10.4 hours weekly in 1999, while computer use among teen girls climbed from 8.8 to 11.1 hours a week, Dr. Melissa C. Nelson of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and colleagues found."

- http://www.ndri.com/news/high_computer_use_dropping_physical_activity_among_teens-162.html

Writing Outside of Ensligh Class

We're only 2 weeks into the spring semester and I have already handed in a 6 page term paper. It was for theology if your wondering, and what I wrote about was the religion of Islam and how it shares qualities with Christianity as well as Judaism. I am sort of happy that the paper was due so early because now I don't have to stress as much for that class and can concentrate on my other subjects, including English.

In my term paper, I used many literary techniques so I can engage the reader and not bore them to death. I asked them questions in which they can personally reflect on as well as added interesting notes and facts about the religion. Religion is a pretty hot topic especially with the troubles going on in the world today. I certainly hope we can find peace in the future and can use our strong will and pride to do something which will benefit all and support a brighter and longer future.