A college student’s TikTok went viral after revealing that she super commutes to her internship in New Jersey.
Sophia Celentano lives in Charleston, South Carolina with her family and commutes to her summer internship by plane, which she’s said is cheaper than living in New Jersey or New York. “Super commuting slay,” she captioned a TikTok of her work routine, where she woke up at 3 a.m. in order to get on a flight from Charleston to Newark.
While she realizes that super commuting isn’t the norm, she’s justified the choice with the amount of money she saves and the ability to live with her family, whom she doesn’t see often since she still attends the University of Virginia during the school year.
In another TikTok, she broke down the cost of her super commute, revealing that she flies on Spirit for about $100 every week. She also factored in $100 Uber rides to and from the airport and $25 worth of food into her budget for the 10-week internship. That brings her grand total to $2,250.
According to CNN, the average rent in Manhattan in April was at an all-time high of $4,241. Celentano is only required to be in her employer, Ogilvy Health’s office once a week; spending that much money on rent in either Parsippany, New Jersery, where the office is, or in New York didn’t seem to be worth it to her.
Celentano spoke with CNN, telling the news outlet that she “wasn’t expecting so many people to be surprised by my commute” since her parents also have similar commutes for their jobs.
“I’ve grown up seeing the flexibility and benefits that provides their lifestyle, so I didn’t really think twice about super commuting this summer. I understand though why people were so shocked by my decision,” she said. “The financial peace would definitely be shocking from an outside perspective; the fact that commuting is cheaper for me, says a lot about the current cost of living and pressures young adults face as they enter the working world.”
