Fort Collins was recently ranked the third most exciting midsize city in the nation. The study took into consideration things like nightlife venues per capita, restaurants that aren’t fast food, outdoor activities and young resident population, and we’ve come out in the top five.

This is great. We all know how great Fort Collins is, and people are taking notice. But, we also can see how easy that is to forget. It’s not hard to come up with things to complain about, like the insane traffic or getting our name in the news with actions that paint us in a less-than-flattering light.

We need to keep in mind that we are privileged enough to live here, and so we need to treat this place with respect. Campus can get a little isolated, and we have a tendency to forget that there is a community of Fort Collins that doesn’t include CSU. We need to remember and respect that our actions reflect on the city as a whole.

Colorado State University has to work closely with the city of Fort Collins to make this a mutually beneficial relationship, and we need to do all we can to help out. That means being respectful of the city that we are lucky enough to live in, and getting recognized for great things that make FoCo look how it actually is: a fantastic — and exciting — place to live.