Harvard is a large campus that stretches throughout three cities, including centralized Cambridge, Watertown to the east, and Boston to the south. However, many students tend to stay within its bounds, only ever leaving to travel to Logan International Airport.

As someone who comes from a strong, self-sustaining rural community, I never had to leave the area for any major reason. As such, I grew up with the same few stores and restaurants in my backyard, but that was about it. If I wanted to do anything besides eat, shop, watch a movie, or go golfing, I would often have to drive at least 40 miles (or about 64 km for you metric users) to a more populated area—and even then, one of these cities served more as a bedroom community rather than a self-sustaining one, and the other still lacked leisure activities for a city its size.

I enjoyed what I had, and always encouraged my friends and family to simply spend a day just driving around town and stopping at random locations to explore what was in plain sight, but I still longed for more to do. I love escape rooms, but they were often a birthday gift; I never got to go rollerblading, go-karting, or play in a real arcade as a kid; I didn’t go to my first concert until after graduating high school, and there were only about 150 people present. I wanted to have more activities, because I knew I wouldn’t take them for granted, and that’s what Boston has given me.

What most Harvard students don’t realize is that there is so much more than campus and our small place in Cambridge. Of course, the museums are expansive and showcase only a blip of what Harvard has to offer, the libraries are treasure troves that one could lose (and one has lost) hours wandering around in, the student center has pool tables and board games to entertain hundreds, and the walking path along the Charles River offers amazing views of the sunrise, but the Greater Boston area is wide open and ready to be explored.

Just to the east of the Union Dorms (the eastern-most dorms on campus) is a supermarket, a Starbucks, a park, and an entire public library that is a few minutes away from Harvard but rarely visited by its students. Similarly, just to the west of the Admissions and Financial Office are two separate parks and the Longfellow House, a national historic site and museum that once housed the great George Washington.

Moving out of Cambridge, just four T-stops on the Red Line (which is the low price of $4.40 for a two-way journey) takes you to the Boston Common, a ginormous park and public garden that I have walked around many times throughout all times of the day. This is also where the Frog Pond is, where my friends and I went “ice skating” on during the winter (more like hobbling around and holding the barrier while trying not to wipeout) and the starting place of the wonderful Freedom Trail, which takes you to so many places where the American Revolution was built and began.

Just another T-stop away is Downtown Crossing, where events are consistently held near the wide array of restaurants and stores—from clothing stores to furniture stores, and more. Going on a midnight run to Taco Bell or carrying a pouffe ottoman back to Harvard were some core memories of my first year at Harvard, but would not have happened without popping that Harvard Bubble.

There’s also Assembly Row to the north, a few stops away on the Orange Line from Downtown Crossing, where a wonderful outlet mall and movie theater sit. It was here that I was dragged along to the premiere of the Taylor Swift album movie and got to watch Hoppers, Toy Story 5, Spider-Man, and more. Additionally, to the south of Downtown Crossing, just a 10 minute walk away is the Seaport District, which has a phenomenal view of the Financial District at night, and the Alamo Drafthouse movie theater. Or you could simply walk around Boston and just take in the amazing sights of the skyscrapers and architecture older than some U.S. states.

This is not even bringing up the dozens and dozens of museums around Greater Boston, plus locations like Fenway Stadium, the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, Castle Island, and everything that you can imagine existing within an hour of Harvard. There is so much to do, and you won’t get to everything in college, but why not go on a random side quest on a Tuesday night with some friends? Exploring the world with those you love will give you longer-lasting memories than sitting in your dorm and staring at a book for the third time, reading information you’ve already consumed.