Non-Rich People On What Their Rich Classmates Were Like

10.

“I went to high school in the northern suburbs of Chicago. There’s also an old Time magazine article from the ’90s titled ‘High Times At New Trier High’ about rich students from my school smoking marijuana. The mean household income for the towns that feed into my high school is about $250,000, but there are many families who rake in millions, if not more, annually. A lot of bizarre stuff went down, but one of the weirdest things is graduation…”

“We graduate in a local university’s basketball stadium, with boys wearing white tuxedos and girls wearing floor-length white ball gowns. This is a PUBLIC high school, folks! But, apparently, it’s also FAR too fancy to wear a standard cap and gown. Instead, we look like a thousand-person debutante ball (my graduating class was about 1,050). Because most kids’ families have more money than they know what to do with, people went all out with the dress selection. The guys all rented standard white tuxes (they even did rental fittings during homeroom), but girls had to buy their own gowns. Most of my classmates got theirs at wedding dress shops (where else would you find an array of floor-length white gowns?!). At least two girls I had classes with traveled internationally to track down ‘unique’ dresses. I kid you not, a 17-year-old in my theater class had her parents fly her to Paris TWICE! Apparently, after she got home from the first trip, she decided she wanted a backup dress, in case anyone’s dress was too similar to hers. So, back to Paris in first class for round two. She seemed surprised that any of us found the trips to be an extravagant thing.”

—31, Illinois