Stingl: Whitewater farm kid's commute to high school is a stunning 36 hours a week

My daily commute downtown is about 30 minutes, and that's both ways combined. I grumble if traffic makes it five minutes longer.

Then I heard about Zachary Jeppsen, who has somehow managed not to lose his mind over a six-hour commute to and from high school.

"You get used to it," he says so calmly.

That's three hours getting there, and three hours getting home. Plus, he goes on Saturday. Add it all up and Zachary enters the commuter hall of fame at 36 hours a week.

The 17-year-old wants to be a professional dancer, and he's pursuing that dream at The Chicago Academy for the Arts, where he is a junior.

The only Wisconsin student at the school, Zachary lives with his parents, Tracey Hall and David Jeppsen, on the family's small farm between Whitewater and Delavan. His three older brothers are away at college.

He wakes up at 4:45 a.m. and leaves the house at 5:30. His mom, dad or sometimes both drive him to Harvard, Ill., where he catches the Metra commuter train at 6:22. That gets him to Ogilvie Transportation Center in downtown Chicago at 8 a.m., and from there he rides a school bus to the private academy on Chicago's north side, arriving around 8:30. That's your three hours.

By the time he finishes all his classes and dance rehearsals, Zachary typically leaves school at 6 p.m. and does the same route in reverse to arrive home at 9 p.m. He tries to be in bed by 10, and then wakes early the next morning and does it all over again.

You may know someone with a longer daily trek to and from work or school, but the academy says Zachary is their champion. It's dark outside when he leaves home and when he returns.

"We typically have a few students each year with exceptional commutes, often coming from Indiana or Wisconsin or the far, far west suburbs. I believe that Zach is the longest commuter this year," said Jason Patera, the head of school.

And he's been doing it for more than two years now, after finishing elementary and middle school in Whitewater.

"It's really been worth it," said Zachary's mom Tracey, no commuter slouch herself. After driving her son to the train and back home, which is 90 minutes, she drives another half hour to her teaching job in Janesville. Then she covers all that ground again to pick up Zachary from the train. That's four hours a day in the car.

"He has transformed as a dancer. To be in a place where it's a cool thing to be a male dancer has been really good for him. He feels supported there," she said.

"He has loved to dance since he was tiny. We signed him up for dance because he would ask us to put on dance music every night so he could dance around the house as a 3-year-old."

Those lessons in ballet, jazz and tap were at The Dance Factory in Delavan. Zachary loved it all and remained in the classes through eighth grade.

"Dance is a way to sort of lose yourself. When I'm dancing, I feel like I can put everything else behind me, or at least I can put everything else on pause. It's a really wonderful experience for me to be able to express myself in that way," he said.

During his long commute, Zachary does homework, talks with friends or sleeps. He sees many of the same people in their same seats every day. He has a learner's permit, but even when he gets his driver's license he plans to continue taking mass transit so he can multi-task.

His school offers all the usual academic subjects like math and history and a huge dose of dance every day. Many of his fellow students are pursuing other arts — music, theater, painting and so forth. The school has no sports teams.

Zachary hopes to be a professional dancer after graduation and would love to start at the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago where he did a summer program. I told him I hope someday he lives right across the street from the dance company.

That would be nice, he said, but for now the long commute is his path to the future.

"I'm pretty worn out at the end of the day, but it all feels worth it."

Contact Jim Stingl at (414) 224-2017 or jstingl@jrn.com. Connect with my public page at Facebook.com/Journalist.Jim.Stingl