A few minutes ago I was standing on the platform at the Emeryville, California Amtrak station. It’s across San Francisco Bay, one of the first towns you come across after leaving the eastern end of the Bay Bridge.

I’d made a friend on the bus that brought us here from downtown San Francisco.

He asked me about my commute. ” You do this every day?”

“Four out of five days a week…”

“Wow! That is some crazy miles you’re putting on this train!”

I sighed. “It’s okay. I’m used to it. Nothing is forever and that includes this. It is what is now.”

“You got family in Sacramento?”

I didn’t answer his question with a yes or no. I just said, “It’s not a bad feeling making a small sacrifice for people who are more important than you.”

“Atta boy.” He smiled. I think he is in the same situation as me.

We don’t deserve medals for doing the right thing. Is a Sacramento-to-San Francisco commute brutal? Yes. Am I going to a job that’s worth it? Yes, I am. Are you sucking it up and dealing with your own challenges? Yes, you are. Are we in this life for its ease and convenience?

Hell no.

I wrote about this very subject this morning on my book site.
We have two choices, I believe. Change how we feel about it or be mad all the time. I choose the former. It took awhile to get to this place, but I’m glad I arrived.

John Scott is a media studies instructor and the career services manager at the School of Multimedia Communications, Academy of Art University San Francisco. John’s book “Destination: Reinvention” is on sale in the Amazon bookstore. The hardcover edition is at Lulu. Audiobook available on Audible and iTunes. Follow John on Twitter @ johnscottsf.