Why I Love Commuting to Work

For three years I lived less than a 2 minute walk from my office. I could literally see my office building from my second story balcony. I often thought to myself, and told others, that I was so lucky to have this convenience in my life.

MAKING MOVES

Fast forward to the beginning of 2019. Our lease was up on the office space and to renew the property manager wanted a 6 year commitment AND higher monthly rent. No thanks. It was time to make moves (figuratively and literally).

Luckily, our hunt for new office space led us to a bright, inviting, open layout suite in the heart of La Jolla Shores just blocks from one of the best beaches in San Diego. The only drawback? My two minute commute became 45 minutes in the car each way ON A GOOD DAY.

NEW COMMUTE, NEW ROUTINE

The first day of my new commute I woke up, plugged the address into Maps to find the quickest route, grabbed my bag and headed out the door. When I got in my car and started the engine, I realized that it had been years since I had heard morning talk radio. In fact, it had been years since I really listened to the radio during the week at all. Why would I? I had almost no need to get in my car Monday through Friday except to run errands after work.

So, that first day of my new commute I spent 45 minutes in the morning driving to La Jolla and blissfully listening to talk radio, country music, Top 40, and anything else I could find scanning. I did the same during my hour plus commute home that day. And the next day and the day after that. And so it went for the first week or so of my new commute, and I thought to myself, “this isn’t so bad”.

But by the end of the second week, the drive was starting to wane on me and no amount of new age country rap (it’s a thing) was going to make it better.

SEEING THE LIGHT

I needed to change things up if I was going to survive the deadlocked 5 freeway at 5:30PM on a Friday. So I started asking around. And by asking around, I mean that I complained to my husband that I hated commuting and asked him what he thought I should do. His response? Download some podcasts.

Podcasts? What a revelation! Ok, not really, but for someone who hadn’t spent much time commuting the past several years and still reads physical books, this was new territory for me. I consulted my inner circle of best girlfriends for recommendations of any of these ‘podcasts’ that they may listen to and quickly had a long list of must-listens. I downloaded a few episodes of a few different podcasts creating a smorgasbord of content to choose from the next day and since then I’ve been hooked.

NEW PERSPECTIVE

So now, thanks to the never-ending supply of podcasts on nearly every topic imaginable, not only is my commute bearable, but I can honestly say that I love commuting to work.

Psst – do you have a favorite podcast you recommend that I should check out? I’m always looking for more to add to my rotation. Let me know in the comments.