Don’t get me wrong. I am as excited for a new school year as much as the next person: free T-shirts at O-Fest, an essentially useless yet obligation-free syllabus week and the rekindling of my passion for Campus Dollar’s superb deals. What’s not to love?

But there is always a sense of lost freedom that comes with the end of summer. I take it as a given I won’t have as much time to watch reruns of “Family Matters” once classes start. But there are more meaningful activities that also fall by the wayside.

Eventually, it starts to feel that everyone — our professors, bosses, extracurricular organizers and even friends — have more say in how we spend our time than we do. I am a student, employee of such and such company, member of such and such organization and an individual, in that order.

Beginning in July, I had the opportunity to live in Milwaukee and for the first time experience the city, not as a Marquette student but simply as a resident.

The first half of my summer was spent studying digital journalism in Cagli, Italy, and I also spent the Fall 2009 semester studying in Cape Town, South Africa. After a series of unforgettable experiences abroad, I figured I would quickly become bored living in a city where I had already spent three years of college.

I was wrong.

I realized there is more to my current home than the neighborhood between Ninth, 20th, Wells and Clybourn Streets and that there are places in Milwaukee that don’t serve food made by Sodexo.

I went to the Brady Street and African Festivals, hiked with a friend near the Urban Ecology Center, bar-hopped on the East Side, ran in the Third Ward and went to Jazz in the Park.

I biked to Wauwatosa, saw a movie at the Oriental Theatre, talked with people staying at Casa Maria Catholic Worker House and ate at restaurants that weren’t within walking distance of my apartment.

Though none of these were significant feats, I learned that students have a lot to gain not only from Marquette but Milwaukee.

It’s easy to get caught up in life on campus, always opting for Marquette Gyros or Caffrey’s instead of going to a Water Street bar or restaurant.

There was something incredibly refreshing about actively taking the time to do things I had never done before, and even though I only scratched Milwaukee’s surface, I discovered you don’t need to go abroad or to a major city to meet interesting people and take part in cultural activities.

There is no doubt each of us has academic and extracurricular obligations to maintain, but we should also feel compelled to get to know the place we live in and to remind ourselves there is more to college than lecture halls and meetings.

Starting a new school year should not mean putting everything else in our lives on hold to accommodate academia.

Along with the commitments we are supposed to make to our classes, we should commit to discovering more as people, whether it means visiting one of Milwaukee’s museums, going to a downtown coffee shop or taking the bus to do something on the East Side.

It would be a shame to walk away from college without having seen or done anything outside of Marquette’s bubble.

I have a feeling — yes, that tonight’s gonna be a good night, but also that when we take the time to step out of that bubble, talk to new people and take in art exhibits, concerts, sporting events, and cafés, we might be surprised by how much Milwaukee has to offer.