North Central College is placed in the “perfect” college town. Naperville. The reputation of this large ass city of 147,682 people, is that it is like living in a “bubble.” It is safe and protected from all the scary things in the outside world like flavored food and diversity. Naperville, in itself, is dominated by white people and their privilege. With about 82% of the city being white and the average household income of $65,000, people of Naperville are definitely “sittin’ pretty.”

Now I grew up in Naperville. I moved from Virginia to Naperville when I was in fifth grade so I do understand a life outside the bubble I currently live in. For now though, I am going to tell you what it’s like inside the bubble.

I will simply start with: Naperville isn’t the friendliest place when it comes to strangers. When my family and I moved in, you would think that the courteous thing to do as a neighbor would be to introduce yourself to the new people in town. That didn’t happen. I still don’t know the first names of my neighbors and I’m afraid that it’s too late to ask.

The new neighbors don’t know my family and I either. There was one instance where my next-door neighbor found a lost dog. She thought the dog was ours and acted as if she was some grand heroine bringing our little puppy home. She knocked on our door saying that she found our dog while she was on a walk and that we must have been so worried. Cue to our dog walking towards the open door to see what was going on. You could tell she was super embarrassed, so we graced her with the knowledge that she found her other neighbors’ dog. Better luck next time!

In addition to “Napervillians” not being the friendliest, they are also very stuck up. Naperville is a “trendy” area where brands matter. If your closet isn’t 50% brand name than you’re going to get eaten by the vicious, judgmental wolves, already prepared to pounce on your body. Naperville people believe that brand names are the ONLY way to live and if you can’t keep up with that then you won’t fit in. Brands represent status. If you wear brands, than you have money and if you have money, you have social power. It’s a pretty terrible type of environment to live in because as a college student, I can not afford these brand name items and I do not enjoy feeling like I am less than because of it.

Sometimes I do not understand why people believe North Central College is located in a great college town. Sure it has a lot of places to eat (that are chain restaurants), places to shop (that are way overpriced), and a beautiful river walk (that is man-made and blocked off half of the time because it’s flooded), but there is nothing particularly special about the town that NCC is placed in. It’s an overcrowded, expensive area run by white people and their annoying high school and middle school children.

Fortunately, Naperville is ranked one of the top safest city’s to live in but unfortunately, Naperville is also home to people committing suicide because of the stress level and pressure that the education system has crafted. It’s saddening to me that this district places more of an emphasis on pushing kids to go to ivy leagues by running them down with work, than overall health and wellness. But that’s Naperville for ya.

All in all, Naperville can be the perfect place to raise a family, get an education and be a contributing member of the community, but there are many downfalls to living in this area. The Naperville bubble isn’t at all perfect and it’s time that everyone stops acting like it is.