Pull up to Yorba Linda High School, I dare you. Play my little game, I dare you. Count the number of Teslas, Mercedes-Benzs, Audis, and Maseratis that you see. Winner gets five bucks. In all seriousness, though, it is hard to stop and smell the roses… or stop and smell the G-Wagons when it is the only lifestyle one knows.

Fast driving cars are not the only accompaniment that comes with living in Yorba Linda. There are multi-million dollar houses everywhere one turns, there are successful businesses, there are low poverty rates, and so on and so on. As a matter of fact, according to “Data USA,” the median household income is $119,697, meaning that 50% of the households in Yorba Linda make above that very value.

Without a doubt, the wealth also translates into the schools of Yorba Linda. With higher salaries, parents are able to provide more financial support to their children’s academic careers. Schools in Yorba Linda never fail to mass produce highly successful and college-ready students.

Achieving titles such as the “wealthiest city in the United States” in 2006, Yorba Linda has had a fair opportunity for the making of stereotypes by neighboring cities. For instance, Yorba Linda High School is accompanied by the title, “The Rich Kid School.” Nonetheless, it is unfair to assign the “privileged child” label to every single student who attends the school, regardless of whether or not the title applies to them. Many parents work paycheck to paycheck lifestyles just to afford an apartment in the area to be able to send their students to the high school. Going to a school so physically attractive with a view of almost all of Orange County surrounded by multi-million dollar houses does not help to lessen the implementation of the stereotypes put in place over the years. Nathaly Chavez (10), who grew up in Downey, California, explained that when she moved to Yorba Linda, she was shocked by “the wealth of the city considering 99% of kids were unpretentious and fairly humble about their parents’ earnings.”

Despite the stereotypes, life in Yorba Linda is not that different than life in any other part of the nation. Children wake up, go to school, come home, do homework, and go to bed. Materialistic goods are merely items that can be lost, stolen, or forgotten. Indeed, the majority of the students at Yorba Linda do not forget the most important “items” in their lives: friends, family, and the love that holds them together. And for the other minority, when their favorite purse is lost, their favorite car is stolen, or their favorite house is forgotten, they will soon realize that although money makes the world go ‘round, love makes the world sound.