The average commuter struggles through traffic or takes the morning train. For 22-year-old Sophia Celentano, the morning commute involves boarding a flight before dawn to reach her internship.
Ogilvy intern wakes up every week around 3:30 a.m. in Charleston, South Carolina, prepares, and sets off towards the airport, before the rest of the people are even getting up from sleep.
At 5:15 a.m., she sits at her gate, cup of coffee in hand, awaiting boarding on a two-hour flight from there to Newark, New Jersey, one day a week that she works on site.
“I didn’t really see it worth getting a really expensive place by the office if I was only needing to be there for eight hours of the week,” Celentano commented in a Business Insider interview. “I guess I never really saw super-commuting as a daunting thing.”
Her unconventional choice wasn’t about chasing headlines or adventure. It was about math. Flying every week still costs less than paying rent near New York City.
Less Expensive to Travel Than Rent
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Initially, the prospect of flying across hundreds of miles just to reach work must have seemed crazy. But Celentano maintains that not just possible, but reasonable.
She books her flights three or four weeks in advance, which run approximately $100 round trip, plus another $100 or whatever on Ubers from the airport into the Ogilvy Newark office. Despite all that, she still saves in the thousands compared to renting in the tri-state.
“If I lived in the New York City or New Jersey area, I’d be spending thousands of dollars a month on rent alone,” she described. For Celentano, the flexibility of spending the better part of days at home is feasible and very productive.
An Alarm Clock at 3 A.M. and a 9-to-5
On work days, Celentano is up at the parents’ home by approximately 4:30 a.m., drives to the airport, and zips through the TSA PreCheck. Her flight departs just after 5 a.m., and she commonly arrives on the ground 15 minutes beforehand.
After riding in an Uber, she is at her desk by 8:30 a.m., ready to begin her 9-to-5 workday.
When the workday is through, she carpools with coworkers into Newark Penn Station, boards a train back to the airport, changes into the comfort of sweatpants at the gate, and embarks on her flight home. By 11 o’clock, she’s back in Charleston, tired but content.
The next day, she goes online from a distance and can finally sleep in. “The next day, because I work remotely, I’m able to sleep in a bit, so that helps a lot,” she said.
Finding Balance at 30,000 Feet
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Celentano divides her summer between Richmond, Virginia, the home of her current beau, and Charleston, the hometown of her parents. It is the best of both worlds as Celentano sees it.
She is no stranger to the airport. Her parents work frequently, too, and she spent a semester abroad traveling in 11 countries in four months.
“I love being at the airport. I love the adventure of it,” she said. “I think it’s really nice to be able to wake up in one city and then start my workday in another.”
The Downsides (and Delays)
Even the most well-prepped traveler, however, hits turbulence. Celentano has had her fair share of flight delays and cancellations. Last July, one of her flights home was delayed by one hour.
Another time, she had to Uber out to a second airport and rebook last-minute because the weather was grounding flights. “That was a little bit frustrating, but I don’t get super flustered with things like that,” she said.
Even with the hiccups, Celentano is not second-guessing her decision. But she concedes that’s not a sustainable lifestyle in the long term. “My internship is only 10 weeks. I don’t know if I would necessarily do this for a full-time position,” she explained. “I don’t anticipate super-commuting after this summer.”
The End of the Boyfriend Epidemic
Celentano’s story went viral not just because she is such a peculiar commuter, but because she represents the wider transformation that dominates the minds of youthful professionals after the lockdown caused by the virus.
“I feel like the major angle people have taken from my story has been the financial side,” she explained.
That flexibility, for Celentano, translates into swapping a small apartment for a life that extends across states, and a few morning flights, all in the name of making that all work.
“You can still have a really successful career,” she said, “even if you’re living far away from where you work.”.
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