Missouri Baptist University is home for many, but the majority of students at MBU are commuters. Commuter life is much different from resident life, and each commuter’s daily life expresses variety as well.
Photo and Video by Michael Maasen
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About 700 students at Missouri Baptist University are commuters, that’s 60 percent of all students attending on main campus.
That’s 700 students who make a daily drive to school.
What do those students do on their drive, just sit there?
What do they think about?
Every student is different, so there are a lot of different answers to these questions.
“My favorite thing to do when I’m driving is listening to music and jamming out,” said Cameron Jackson, a junior business management major.
Some students, like Shelby Wannemuehler, a junior public relations major, have their “own personal concert every day” on their way to school.
“It just depends what mood I’m feeling,” said Wannemuehler, “Sometimes it’s John Mayer and I’m a guitarist and other times I’m Beyonce.”
Music is a common theme for students while driving because it can really help to pass the time, especially if you have to wait in traffic.
Some students use that time differently than others.
Many students enjoy jamming to music in their car, including Emily Morton, a junior public relations major.
She also takes “time to do my makeup and finish getting ready because I usually wake up late.”
Waking up late is just one struggle that many commuting students face day to day.
Commuters deal with road constructions, gas prices, slow drivers, forgetting phones or other important things, bringing their own food or buying it, having to wake up earlier than resident students and if a commuter forgets something at their house that is important, they have to drive all the way back to go get it.
George Martin, a senior IT major, brings up another issue that many commuters deal with.
“I don’t have all my stuff with me, I have to drive back to my house to get practice clothes,” said Martin.
Not to say residents don’t have to overcome hardships, but commuters do have their own set of struggles.
However, these struggles do not have to be viewed as a bad thing all the time .
Enduring through these struggles teaches students to be prepared for life after graduation.
After all, most people will be having to commute to their full time job after they graduate.
Commuters can often be seen lending a spare phone charger to friends because they keep two on them at all times, and commuters are often the earliest students to class in an effort to beat the traffic.
Commuters may not be on campus often outside of class times, but their lives are no less rich.
The realities of a commuter’s life teach them how to live prepared for anything.
This all being said, being a commuter should not be considered a bad thing.
It should be considered a chance to learn how to be ready for life post-graduation.
Kate Goodberlet 
Isabel Rinkenberger 
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