Mission Week 2012 is officially underway. This year’s theme, “Who is my neighbor?” encourages students to become more involved with the community. Similar to last year’s “Imagine God” theme, this year’s Mission Week reminds us of Jesuit ideals and how to uphold them.

The theme attempts to pop the infamous “Marquette bubble” to get more students familiar with their neighbors. But what exactly is a neighbor? Is it the person who lives directly next to you? Is it the people at the bus stop at 12th and Wisconsin with whom you avoid eye contact? Is it the person who lives across the state line?

We at the Tribune believe that being a neighbor is not about proximity of living. Whether you live in a crowded subdivision or the middle of a cornfield, you have neighbors — about 7 billion of them, in fact.

The agenda for Mission Week 2012 certainly focuses on our neighbors in Milwaukee with events such as an area bus tour and a community research workshop. But it also focuses on areas far beyond our immediate surroundings. Thursday, there will be a screening of the documentary “Old South,” which follows a black neighborhood in Georgia as it battles a Confederate college fraternity. Similarly, the keynote address given by Dr. Bernard Amadei will focus on our neighbors, not in Milwaukee, but in the developing world.

Clearly the people responsible for planning this year’s Mission Week were aware that there are local, national and international neighbors. But were you?

“Who is my neighbor?” is a good question and Mission Week itself is a great idea. But why does it have to take a week-long event to get some people to engage with others? The world is constantly shrinking with the unstoppable spread of globalization, and we cannot ignore it. We must concern ourselves with everyone’s issues, not just our own. That means experiencing a week of service during Mission Week and then applying its theme toward others, 365 days a year.

Some people may argue that most volunteers only help people who are less fortunate because it makes them feel better about themselves. But we believe Mission Week (and service in general) shouldn’t be about helping the less fortunate. It should be about helping anyone and everyone. We’re not talking about charity; we’re talking about genuine human compassion.

Ideally, we would like everyone to venture outside themselves to make a difference for others, but make sure you do it for the right reasons. You should not be helping other people simply because Marquette tells you to. You definitely should not be serving others just because an editorial in the Marquette Tribune told you to either. You need to be helping others because it is the humane thing to do.

Some people talk about putting up a fence to keep their next door neighbors away. Some neighbors call the cops when the music is too loud. There are those neighbors who dog-sit for you when you’re on vacation or who help you shovel your driveway. But there are also neighbors in the next state over and across the ocean that are working toward common goals.

Regardless of the country you were born in, the kind of food you like, the way you get to work or what you do on your days off, you are the same as everyone else, and we’re all neighbors. We hope that you can remember that, even after Mission Week is over.