I lived 45 minutes away from my high school when I was a teenager. I had to be in my form class at 8.30am. This meant I had to set off at 7.45 at the very latest in order to get there on time. And when it's freezing cold, and the wind is blustering, it could be very hard to make yourself get out of bed and go to school, let me tell you.
I had friends who lived round the corner from the school, their journey would be 10 minutes maximum. It used to really annoy me that they would sometimes come in late to first lesson, having completely missed form at 8.30am! They had so little to travel, how could they be so late!
It wasn't until I got older that I wondered whether actually travelling from far to be somewhere at a certain time meant you would more likely get there on time. You have to think of so many other issues that could go wrong on your journey that you have to allow for extra time.
I remember when I first flew on a plane, my parents had to drive from Leeds to Manchester airport. We arrived VERY early. Too early in fact. We had to wait two hours for the luggage drop off point to be open. When it finally opened, I got excited and thought we were now boarding the plane. Little did I know that we still had another 2 hours wait now to actually get on the plane!
I've always been quite proud of the fact I am rarely late to things. I like that I am always early to things. (although granted, that time in Manchester was way too early, even for me!) I reckon if it wasn't for that daily 45 minute walk, I would be one of those coming in 5-10 minutes into a meeting saying 'Sorry I'm late'....