By Abiodun Giwa
There is a time for everything under the Sun; Karang remembers the elders teach young people, admonishing them to not waste time playing truants. This thought never escapes him as he labors from one struggle to another. As soon as he completes his undergraduate studies-an opportunity that has eluded him growing up in his home country due to poverty-he remembers that he needs to immediately seek admissions for graduate studies. “I am no longer a young man,”he said in soliloquy as he puts papers together for graduate school applications.
He targets a school in the city that will enable him jog studies between home and work. But he is careful to choose three schools for his application, and all three are the major schools in the city's environs that offer his choice of graduate studies, two located in Manhattan and one in Long Island. The two schools he has eyes in the city slip away for one reason or another, and only the school in Long Island offers him admission. Thus he settles for a graduate admission in a town that will involve long commute from his home.
“Everything is about struggle and sacrifice and nothing comes easy,”he told Tina, his wife, who had said that Karang needed to remember he was no longer a young fellow and should be wary of the type of hard work he was imposing on himself. “I just got to do this graduate school and take it out of the way. Time is not on my side.” The love for the school he eventually gains admission despite the distance assuages for what he later views as moral equivalent of cracking a kernel with bare hands to get the nut.
Karang gains graduate admission in a school in Long Island, while he lives in Flatbush, Brooklyn and works in Manhattan. At the beginning of the first semester, he calculates the cost of commuting on Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) and finds it nearly prohibitive based on his income. It will cost him $14.00 every day that he goes to school, and he will attend classes three days a week. It means he will need about $2000.00 for commuting in a semester. And that will be $8000.00 for four semesters.
He determinedly sticks with the budget than allow graduate school opportunity slip away. The reason for
his resolution needs to be explained. He is already 57 years old. He has graduated from college a day prior to his 57th birthday. He has slipped out of his country to the United States at 47. He is ready for the difficulties it will entail to regain the educational opportunity he has lost in his home country partly due to his parents inability to pay his way through school and the government’s lack of educational plans for those willing to acquire it.
By the time Karang has traveled to school attending classes in a graduate school for the first two months in a semester of four months, he begins to feel the burden on his purse. In a discussion with Pamela, a female student in one of his classes, while waiting for the school shuttle bus for a ride to Hempstead for the LIRR one
evening after class, she has said Karang must be rich for traveling to school on LIRR. Karang has explained to her that the LIRR is the only form of transportation he knows that runs from Brooklyn to Long Island. Resultantly Pamela has told him about the possibility of saving the money for traveling on LIRR if he can commute in the Nassau Inter County Express (NICE) bus, paying with the same metro card he uses traveling in the city subway that costs $30.00 weekly, $120.00 monthly and $1920.00 for four semesters.
“I didn’t know I could travel by bus from Hempstead to Queens to connect the subway to the city and Brooklyn, and it was why I had been spending money traveling on the LIRR,” he told Pamela and thanked her for her disclosure and timely advice. The same night from Hempstead, Karang traveled on the same NICE bus with Pamela from Hempstead to Queens and connected the F train from 179 Street en-route the city. He saved the $7.00 he had on him for the LIRR train from which he had been diverted due to the discovery of the NICE bus and the F Train using his regular metro card. He believes this singular discovery saved his ambition for graduate school, because continued cost of traveling on LIRR would have nipped that ambition. And henceforth, he commutes in the city subway to Queens to connect the NICE bus. He savors traveling on the NICE bus and
the F Train; connect the B Train in the city to his part of Brooklyn or E Train from West 4 Station to the World Trade Center whenever he is going to work from school. It has saved him money, but leaves him with traveling long hours to arrive in school and home or work from school. It takes about one hour to travel on the LIRR to Hempstead from the Atlantic Station in Brooklyn and vice-versa and the ride is more comfortable.
The choice for the NICE bus and the subway means long hours of commuting to get to school. Traveling in the F Train from West 4 Station to 179 Street in Jamaica takes about one and half hour. Another one and half hour or more is required for traveling on the NICE bus from 179 Street to Hempstead, before hopping on another NICE bus or the school’s shuttle bus from Hempstead to school. There are days he travels three and half hours to get to school and same time to get home or work from school.
Karang concludes the first semester without feeling the harshness of traveling hours to get to school and returns home or work with 3.15 GPA. One week into the second semester, Karang loses his mother; requires traveling to his home country with his wife, 30 hours in the air, 12 hours on road within his home country and mega activities of the mother’s funeral that includes one night of wake keeping. He returns to the U.S. and school fully exhaust. The same day that he hops out of the aircraft he heads to school. He had to, having missed two classes each in his three classes for the semester.
He begins to feel the burden of long commute to school, disconnect with his class works and losing clarity in his writings. He links his problem to emotional attachment he has with his late mother and believes with time he will recover from the effect. He also believes his wife staying behind in his country tending to the children before she will return to the U.S. and making him to take temporary charge of the home core along with his long commute may be responsible for his miserable state of affairs.
In his mind, he says since he has already started the graduate school, he cannot think of abandoning it midway. He believes he will succeed with two semesters and two months remaining for him to finish. Though the work is enormous, he is bracing up to tackle it. He believes also that his situation will be better when his wife returns. He doesn’t think about returning to the LIRR that has increased its fares from $7.00 to $9.00 for Off Peak period passengers and $9.00 to $11.00 for Peak period passenger will be solution to his problem, since his own finance hasn’t improved since his undergraduate days, while his rent and other costs of living have increased astronomically. Although, he rides the LIRR occasionally when he is late to avoid missing classes, commuting the long distance to school using his regular metro card has become the ‘ace’that has helped in sustaining his determination to clinch the Masters degree without falling apart financially.
When he compares the cost of traveling on the LIRR with the city’s subway and the NICE buses, as many commuters do between Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island, he discovers why a whole lot of commuters struggle for space in the F Train and the NICE buses to Long Island and returning from Long Island. He says it is tough sitting on the F Train all the way from Brooklyn to 179 Street, and still sits on the NICE bus through the Hempstead Turnpike. But he says it is worth the effort for money saved and the hope for a better future. There are times he says he feels tired, wishes he wouldn’t be going to hop on the F Train and the NICE bus, and wishes he has money to go on the LIRR.
His experience reminds him of Matthew Arnold's poem, "Dover Beach", and anticipates the Spring break is forever.
He targets a school in the city that will enable him jog studies between home and work. But he is careful to choose three schools for his application, and all three are the major schools in the city's environs that offer his choice of graduate studies, two located in Manhattan and one in Long Island. The two schools he has eyes in the city slip away for one reason or another, and only the school in Long Island offers him admission. Thus he settles for a graduate admission in a town that will involve long commute from his home.
“Everything is about struggle and sacrifice and nothing comes easy,”he told Tina, his wife, who had said that Karang needed to remember he was no longer a young fellow and should be wary of the type of hard work he was imposing on himself. “I just got to do this graduate school and take it out of the way. Time is not on my side.” The love for the school he eventually gains admission despite the distance assuages for what he later views as moral equivalent of cracking a kernel with bare hands to get the nut.
Karang gains graduate admission in a school in Long Island, while he lives in Flatbush, Brooklyn and works in Manhattan. At the beginning of the first semester, he calculates the cost of commuting on Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) and finds it nearly prohibitive based on his income. It will cost him $14.00 every day that he goes to school, and he will attend classes three days a week. It means he will need about $2000.00 for commuting in a semester. And that will be $8000.00 for four semesters.
He determinedly sticks with the budget than allow graduate school opportunity slip away. The reason for
his resolution needs to be explained. He is already 57 years old. He has graduated from college a day prior to his 57th birthday. He has slipped out of his country to the United States at 47. He is ready for the difficulties it will entail to regain the educational opportunity he has lost in his home country partly due to his parents inability to pay his way through school and the government’s lack of educational plans for those willing to acquire it.
By the time Karang has traveled to school attending classes in a graduate school for the first two months in a semester of four months, he begins to feel the burden on his purse. In a discussion with Pamela, a female student in one of his classes, while waiting for the school shuttle bus for a ride to Hempstead for the LIRR one
evening after class, she has said Karang must be rich for traveling to school on LIRR. Karang has explained to her that the LIRR is the only form of transportation he knows that runs from Brooklyn to Long Island. Resultantly Pamela has told him about the possibility of saving the money for traveling on LIRR if he can commute in the Nassau Inter County Express (NICE) bus, paying with the same metro card he uses traveling in the city subway that costs $30.00 weekly, $120.00 monthly and $1920.00 for four semesters.
“I didn’t know I could travel by bus from Hempstead to Queens to connect the subway to the city and Brooklyn, and it was why I had been spending money traveling on the LIRR,” he told Pamela and thanked her for her disclosure and timely advice. The same night from Hempstead, Karang traveled on the same NICE bus with Pamela from Hempstead to Queens and connected the F train from 179 Street en-route the city. He saved the $7.00 he had on him for the LIRR train from which he had been diverted due to the discovery of the NICE bus and the F Train using his regular metro card. He believes this singular discovery saved his ambition for graduate school, because continued cost of traveling on LIRR would have nipped that ambition. And henceforth, he commutes in the city subway to Queens to connect the NICE bus. He savors traveling on the NICE bus and
the F Train; connect the B Train in the city to his part of Brooklyn or E Train from West 4 Station to the World Trade Center whenever he is going to work from school. It has saved him money, but leaves him with traveling long hours to arrive in school and home or work from school. It takes about one hour to travel on the LIRR to Hempstead from the Atlantic Station in Brooklyn and vice-versa and the ride is more comfortable.
The choice for the NICE bus and the subway means long hours of commuting to get to school. Traveling in the F Train from West 4 Station to 179 Street in Jamaica takes about one and half hour. Another one and half hour or more is required for traveling on the NICE bus from 179 Street to Hempstead, before hopping on another NICE bus or the school’s shuttle bus from Hempstead to school. There are days he travels three and half hours to get to school and same time to get home or work from school.
Karang concludes the first semester without feeling the harshness of traveling hours to get to school and returns home or work with 3.15 GPA. One week into the second semester, Karang loses his mother; requires traveling to his home country with his wife, 30 hours in the air, 12 hours on road within his home country and mega activities of the mother’s funeral that includes one night of wake keeping. He returns to the U.S. and school fully exhaust. The same day that he hops out of the aircraft he heads to school. He had to, having missed two classes each in his three classes for the semester.
He begins to feel the burden of long commute to school, disconnect with his class works and losing clarity in his writings. He links his problem to emotional attachment he has with his late mother and believes with time he will recover from the effect. He also believes his wife staying behind in his country tending to the children before she will return to the U.S. and making him to take temporary charge of the home core along with his long commute may be responsible for his miserable state of affairs.
In his mind, he says since he has already started the graduate school, he cannot think of abandoning it midway. He believes he will succeed with two semesters and two months remaining for him to finish. Though the work is enormous, he is bracing up to tackle it. He believes also that his situation will be better when his wife returns. He doesn’t think about returning to the LIRR that has increased its fares from $7.00 to $9.00 for Off Peak period passengers and $9.00 to $11.00 for Peak period passenger will be solution to his problem, since his own finance hasn’t improved since his undergraduate days, while his rent and other costs of living have increased astronomically. Although, he rides the LIRR occasionally when he is late to avoid missing classes, commuting the long distance to school using his regular metro card has become the ‘ace’that has helped in sustaining his determination to clinch the Masters degree without falling apart financially.
When he compares the cost of traveling on the LIRR with the city’s subway and the NICE buses, as many commuters do between Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island, he discovers why a whole lot of commuters struggle for space in the F Train and the NICE buses to Long Island and returning from Long Island. He says it is tough sitting on the F Train all the way from Brooklyn to 179 Street, and still sits on the NICE bus through the Hempstead Turnpike. But he says it is worth the effort for money saved and the hope for a better future. There are times he says he feels tired, wishes he wouldn’t be going to hop on the F Train and the NICE bus, and wishes he has money to go on the LIRR.
His experience reminds him of Matthew Arnold's poem, "Dover Beach", and anticipates the Spring break is forever.
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