Commutes. Commutes, Commutes, Commutes. Commutes. Commutes? Commutes! Everybody has a commute. Be it taking the bus, taking a train, or just walking a couple of minutes for some lucky individuals, everyone has to get here in some fashion. As we all probably know, a lot of people live relatively far from our school, in faraway lands like Queens and Brooklyn. Listening to people talk about how far they live and how they have to wake up at 5:00 AM just to end up being late anyway because of some stupid delay on the A train makes us all wonder: who has the longest commute? We asked all sorts of students and alumni to find the longest commute of all time. 

“My commute is really long. I take the A train all the way to and from Rockaway Beach every day! It sucks, but I feel like riding through most of Brooklyn and Queens twice a day has given me forbidden knowledge on this city’s darkest secrets.”

— Jacob Jacobs, class of ‘24

“I live all the way on the edge of Queens, so I have to take the Q348, then the Q62C, then the Q348383, then the E train, then the 1 train, and then I walk to the school while avoiding the giant rats and small children by that one elementary school on 138th Street. Help me.”

— Suzanna Morales, class of ‘26

“I hide in the trunk of a certain teacher’s car when he drives to school. It’s a chill ride but man, he really needs to clean his car up.”

— Student chose to stay anonymous

“I live on Staten Island. Not only did I have to deal with the ferry ride and the long train ride up Manhattan, but I also had to deal with everyone jeering at me because I’m a Staten Islander.”

— Lauren Chen, class of ‘21

“Living in Newark and being an HSMSE student sucks. I have to take 6 trains at rush hour and fight my way through the huge crowds of Penn Station. On the bright side, I’ve gotten really good at navigating through tight, dark, creepy corridors!”

— Dave Azhemetenapov, class of ‘27

“I live all the way in Washington DC. Trains are expensive, so I just cross the Delaware River with George Washington twice a day, along with 60 other sad commuters.”

— Deanne Smiley, class of ‘18

“It takes me 18 hours to get to HSMSE from my home in Chicago every day. My uncle, who really has nothing better to do, drives me there. I really appreciate the sights while driving there; corn fields, corn fields, and corn fields!”

— Emily Binana, class of ‘23

“I live in Florida, but honestly my commute isn’t too bad. Whenever I go to sleep at night I manage to wake up in HSMSE the next morning. Apparently according to some of the teachers who hang out at school way too early, I somehow run all the way to HSMSE in my sleep.”

— Peters Peterson, class of ‘27

“I ride on the flock of geese when they’re migrating from my house in northern Canada to the New York area, call that a private jet.”

— Sylvia the Canadian, class of ‘21

“I live in the mountains of Tibet. I traverse across hundreds of miles of mountains and dense cities until I finally reach the coast, where I take a rowboat and row across the entire Pacific Ocean, dodging horrible sea monsters and pirates along the way. I sneak across the Panama Canal, row some more along the entire North American coast, and for the most dangerous and treacherous part, I take the 1 train up to MSE.”

— Arkadag Kaganov, class of ‘09

“I live in Berlin and I just sneak with the rest of the MSE students who go on those trips to Germany every year. I’ve really cherished the four times I’ve actually been to the HSMSE building.”

— Hunter Gleefenglafenglofen, class of ‘26

“Every day I crawl out of my cave in Antarctica and swim up the ocean until I reach school. My parents have considered moving closer to HSMSE.”

— Wenk Wenkwenkwenk (not a penguin), class of ‘27

And for a bonus, the shortest commute of all time:

“I sleep in room 103 every night, under the fourth desk from the door. Mr. Liu used to get so scared whenever I woke up in the morning!”

— Student chose to stay anonymous

There you have it! The longest commutes of all time! It just goes to show that our students will try their hardest to get to our school, no matter how many buses or train transfers they have to take, or how many sea monsters they have to avoid. Despite all the hardships and circumstances we may face on the various commutes we endure, at the end of the day, we are all HSMSE students, and we’ll go through anything to get to this great school!