In its last issue, The Here and Now documented the many pressures that accompany living in the DMV. However, we have yet to mention the benefits of living in one of the most educated and affluent metropolitan areas in the world.
So why do we love living in or near Washington, D.C. so much? The DMV offers a unique living experience, serving as home to an extremely diverse demographic of people. The US Census Bureau projects that, as of 2018, the DMV will be ethnically composed of approximately 45.6% Whites, 24.7% African Americans, 16% Asians, and 10.4% Hispanics. As of 2013, in Washington D.C. alone, 35.8% of people identified as white, 10.4% as Hispanic, and 49.5% as African American. In an area with such a rich mix of race and ethnicity, residents of the DMV reap the benefits of living in a heterogenous community marked by multifariousness of culture.
Says Zoe Sheppard, ’16, “It’s really nice to walk around and feel like there are people who look like me. Being biracial, it is nice to be somewhere, even just the grocery store and feel like there is someone you identify with on a cultural standpoint.”
In addition to the racial diversity of the DMV, the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area is an epicenter for young Millennials who offer a breath of fresh air to what may sometimes be considered a somewhat rigid and intensive atmosphere. Members of Generation Y are the majority age group in D.C. and have made the city their own, oftentimes sharing liberal attitudes towards social and cultural issues. As a result of their influence, residents of the DMV are inherently socially aware.
With their generally liberal attitudes and social awareness, Millennials have ushered in an entirely new era of the DMV that has resulted in a burgeoning fashion scene. Washington, D.C. was once considered one of the least fashionable cities in the world. Having been voted #14 on the country’s worst dressed cities list in 2012, according to Travel and Leisure, D.C. has made huge strides over the past few years. The streets once associated with women in less-than-fashionable pantsuits and men in oversized blazers have been transformed into a mecca for the fashion-forward. The DMV is now characterized by a contingent of young, hipster 20-somethings who are redefining fashion.
Because the DMV is such a culturally diverse place and home to the younger generation, restaurateurs have used the demographic to their advantage–and to ours as well. Food connoisseurs from around the globe flock to the DMV for its multiplicity of restaurants opened by some of the world’s top chefs. The trajectory of restaurants has diverged from the typical American food scene and has responded to the recent generational surge in organic and local eating through innovation and creation. A prime example is Beefsteak, profiled in the last issue of The Here and Now, which uses only vegetables to create a robust variety of bold flavors.
While going out to Sunday brunch at one of the many spectacular restaurants in Washington, D.C. may run some DMV residents’ wallets dry, most everything else that D.C. has to offer most certainly will not. In fact, Washington, D.C. is arguably one of the few cities in the United States that offers free fun. From visiting the national monuments and watching the pandas play at the National Zoo, to walking through the treasured halls of the Natural History Museum, D.C. presents innumerable free activities.
Evidently, as students at a school located in the DMV, we have always reaped the benefits that are a short walk and a few Metro stops away from Stone Ridge. The places that most students from around the country and world might visit once on school trips are places that we find ourselves at every day.
But how has living in the DMV changed our experience as students? We are incredibly aware, living in the heart of social and political change. Our neighbors and relatives are lawmakers and policy wonks. Our educational environment is characterized by our opportunities.
Catherine Cook, ’17, cites her experience the past two summers at programs at Georgetown University as a “wake-up call” to just how lucky she was to live in D.C. “Everyone around me, those who were foreign or from out-of-state, were amazed at how many resources were available in just one area. […] Upon reflecting on this experience, I realize how much I have taken for granted the tremendous accessibility to some of the world’s best resources.”
So it is no question as to why the DMV is the most educated metropolitan area in the United States. Comparing her experience of attending a public middle school in Laurel, MD, to attending Stone Ridge, Sheppard says, “My school was in a very suburban area of Howard County, with probably just as much diversity, but I was not surrounded by the whole ‘business-oriented,’ motivated people. Being at Stone Ridge in Bethesda now, I definitely feel like I’m around career-driven people, which I had never experienced prior to attending school here.”
As students of the DMV, we also have the unparalleled access to incredible internships due to our unique location. We live with the nation’s most powerful, and as a result are able to use that to our advantage.
“I think that they are definitely attainable, just from living where I live,” responds Sheppard when asked about how accessible internships actually are in the DMV. “Sure, it is easier if you have connections for those opportunities, but just being in a close vicinity to them you already have them at your fingertips. All you have to do is go out, be proactive, and find those opportunities because they are all right there.”
Living in the DMV offers one of the most unique living experiences in the entire world, and according to Sheppard, the Stone Ridge community properly capitalizes on its ideal situation. So, despite the somewhat stressful pressures that are put on our community as a result of our prominent location, living where we do offers limitless opportunities and possibilities.
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