This community is a great place to live, no doubt about it.

There’s a reason why affluent citizens choose to spend their time here, a notion affirmed by the fact that the median household income of the north shore is around $160,000, while the national median average income is a mere $51,939 according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

No matter where you reside in the New Trier Township, this place is spectacular. Streets are abundant with freshly groomed lawns; walking down the street you’re bound to see a Porsche, Land Rover, or BMW drive by.

This community is safe and beautiful. Who wouldn’t want to live here?

That, my friends, is the New Trier bubble. I’ll never tire of the gorgeous beaches, quaint brick streets, and lavish homes that line this township. I love where I live.

But it is hard to dispute that this place is very much a bubble. Growing up in this town, I’ve lived a sheltered life. I haven’t been exposed to homelessness, poverty, or what its like to walk down the street in broad daylight and not feel safe.

Though New Trier Township does house a percentage of low-income families and others with varying income levels, I am speaking for the majority. Sure, there are people in this town that don’t fit the stereotype I’ve just discussed. The issue is, most people do.

This sheltered life has been a great way to grow up. Though as much as I love the safety and security of this place, the bubble cannot be my whole world.

I’m not proposing that New Trier students leave the bubble. For many, like me, that is unrealistic.

Instead, I urge every New Trier student to at least experience what it’s like to be in an environment that is not as strictly homogenous as ours. I’m not saying you have to live a different lifestyle, I’m saying you should have a different perspective. 

The fortunate thing about many people in this community is that we have the financial opportunity to do this. We can go to college, study abroad, travel the world, become something unique.

Like it or not, many people in the New Trier Township are generally the same. Our parents come from middle class to affluent white families, and most are college educated.

Most of us students will go on to be college educated, get a well-paying job, find the love of our lives and then proceed to move to an affluent, sheltered suburb and resume this cycle again.

I will probably do what I’ve just discussed. In this place, most of us are living mirrored lives. The issue with living with similar people is that your eyes are not acquainted with the wonderful differences this planet can bring.

This issue of the Examiner is not meant to look at New Trier with negative eyes. As residents of the New Trier Township, none of the editors are above the bubble or see ourselves as superior for pointing out the intense sheltering that we experience in this place.

This Examiner was published to give students a chance to look at New Trier through realistic, objective eyes. We hope readers look at the world around them and see the benefits of their community, as well as the downsides.

As editors, we wanted to take a closer look at our daily life and inspect things that are not usually inspected.

We hope this Examiner helps you look at our community in a different way. We wrote this to give you a different perspective on a place you know well.

Then, we urge you to keep seeking out these differences. Strive to look at the same world in different ways—you’ll gain knowledge, like I’m sure you have here.

We definitely gained some from writing this issue. We hope this motivates you, the reader, to interact with people who may not be like you—whether that be ethnic background, hometown, or a simple difference of opinion. That’s all we want to give you: perspective.