“That’s a great question,” she added, before explaining her plan.
“Because I only have to be in the office one day a week, honestly, it’s cheaper for me to stay at home in Charleston for the summer with my parents and just pay for plane tickets one day a week than to live in New York full time.”
In subsequent weeks, her commute has tended to cost US$200 ($100 on round-trip flights and $100 on airport transfers). Speaking to news outlets, she said this was still much cheaper than rent in or around New York.
Local news outlets quickly caught wind of the incredible lengths Celentano went to make her internship work and she has since been interviewed on several national broadcast networks.
She has continued to document her commute and daily life on TikTok and has since shared that the internship is paid.
However, many say the lengths she has gone to are still too far, even for a paid internship.
“As someone who works for an advertising agency … this is not worth it,” one person wrote. “I work at an NYC advertising agency and it’s absolutely not worth that hassle,” another added.
Some simply expressed disbelief at the feat; in particular the early wake-up time.
“This is unhinged,” one person commented. “There is no amount of money you could pay me to wake up at 3am to commute,” another wrote.
When asked about the environmental impact of her commute, Celentano said it was not her responsibility to improve aviation.
“If any engineers wanna get to work on more sustainable forms of transportation that’d be great,” she wrote in one video.
