One of my professors described Georgetown University as “a school of escalators.” He said it consists of a couple well-laid paths for incoming first-years to work hard in, follow a predetermined route and end up with a job offer from one of a handful of industries. A large part of this thought process is rooted in constantly surrounding ourselves with the same environment that pressures us to think a certain way. I think the only real way to break out of that mentality is by consistently leaving campus.

Like most first-years, my pre-orientation mentors, New Student Orientation advisors and upperclassmen warned me about the “Georgetown bubble.” But the idea that I would only do the same activities thousands of Hoyas before me had done seemed unlikely; I thought I’d be ecstatic to see what a city like Washington, D.C., has to offer. 

However, two semesters later, those upperclassmen were right. I suppose I have technically left campus by visiting shops and restaurants in the neighborhood. I’ve gone to social venues on weekend nights, and had the quintessential nighttime “monumenting” experience. Still, the common thread between all those excursions is that I did them all within the confines of the Georgetown neighborhood and the National Mall.

Experiences like these are obviously integral to a freshman year at Georgetown. But the problem is that just doing activities like those pigeonholes us into a mindset that Georgetown implicitly pushes onto us all. Suddenly, the importance of getting into a club or finding the perfect friend group gets blown out of proportion. That’s the real concern behind the “Georgetown Bubble” – tricking one’s mind into believing life at Georgetown is one’s entire life.

Admittedly, this inhibition of independent experiences isn’t entirely all-consuming. Often, a close high school friend, a family member or a long-distance significant other may remind us to focus on activities and hobbies outside Georgetown’s campus, but those interactions largely occur digitally and are difficult to practice in everyday life. 

Living in this Georgetown bubble has affected my college experience by pushing me to think in terms of practicality and pre-professionalism, rather than developing an explorative and curious mind, which I had wanted to prioritize while in college. Obviously, both aspects of college life — learning for the sake of learning and preparing for one’s career — are important, but what the right balance is between both of those journeys is different from person to person. Georgetown’s heavy focus on career placement in traditional fields seemed imbalanced to me given my personal ambition to explore unique interests in college. But living in the Georgetown Bubble meant acclimatizing ourselves to its mindset, which is why I lived a freshman year that didn’t necessarily align with what I had envisioned for myself.

Thankfully, it’s quite easy to get around D.C. and the DMV area. On-campus organizations like Escape and Outdoor Education put on programming virtually every week to get students off campus. Moreover, D.C. itself contains virtually anything one might want to explore. Beyond the monuments, there are bustling areas like Logan Circle and the Wharf, and more off-the-radar experiences like concerts with Sofar sounds. Finding what to do on a weekend isn’t the hard part; being determined enough to push ourselves to leave is the real challenge. 

A large part of why I hadn’t broken out of the bubble for so long was because I never took the time to stop and think about how I spent my time. Whether it was classes, extracurricular activities, or social gatherings, I hadn’t budgeted consistent time to sit and reflect on my college lifestyle thus far. Forcing ourselves to consistently examine our lives is a great way to break out of negative habits, and doing so for me has been incredibly rewarding. Obviously, everyone has a different conception of what matters most to them in college and what an ideal week looks like. To me, breaking out of the Georgetown bubble is a part of that ideal week. But only if we grant ourselves the time to stop and think about what that ideal lifestyle is and how we can work towards it can we make concrete changes to ourselves.

Ashok Ramkumar is a sophomore in the School of Foreign Service.