The Student Observer: What we take for normal in Weston

When you’ve lived somewhere your whole life, it’s hard to tell what’s normal everywhere and what’s normal only where you live.

A recent Boston Magazine article, “Massachusetts Is No. 1! Obviously.,” looked at statistics that help explain what makes Massachusetts different. It made me wonder what the numbers would say about Weston and the things those of us who grow up here might take for granted.

The Census Bureau estimates that 84% of Weston adults have at least a bachelor’s degree, and more than half have a graduate or professional degree. The state education department reports that 99% of Weston High School juniors and seniors completed advanced coursework during the 2025–26 school year. I don’t know whether one leads to the other, but together they say something about the expectations that surround us.

As a junior starting to look seriously at colleges, I’m realizing how much those expectations probably shape the way we think about our own futures. I’m also becoming more curious about the adults around us. How did they figure out what interested them? What did they think they would do at our age? And did they actually do it?

The Census also estimates that 22% of Weston residents were born outside the United States and that 29% speak a language other than English at home. Those numbers made me realize how much I probably don’t know about people I’ve known for years. A classmate or neighbor may have a family story I’ve simply never thought to ask about.

In the November 2024 election, about 76% of Weston’s registered voters cast ballots, compared with 68% statewide. Nearly 200 residents volunteer on town boards and committees. Until recently, those weren’t numbers I would have thought much about. But as my classmates and I get closer to voting age, I’m becoming more interested in how decisions get made in Weston and who gets involved in making them.

Then there’s the library. Weston ranked among the top 10 in library circulation per resident among Massachusetts communities reported by the state in 2025. That’s a lot of books moving through a relatively small town, and perhaps one reason reading and learning can feel like part of the culture we grow up around.

Cars offer another example. By mid-2025, about 10% of Weston’s vehicles were electric, one of the highest rates in Massachusetts. Electric cars are so common here that they don’t seem particularly remarkable. My friends and I will probably be buying cars in a world that looks a lot more like Weston’s driveways.

Weston also has about 2,000 acres of conservation land and 100 miles of trails. Open space has always seemed normal to me. That extends to the Town Green, where we hunted for Easter eggs as kids, went sledding, and listened to summer concerts. It’s also where my class will graduate in 2028. I wonder if all this green space is another thing we won’t fully appreciate until we live somewhere else.

I’ve attended school in Weston since kindergarten, so none of this has ever seemed especially unusual. Looking at the numbers made me realize that where you grow up shapes what you expect from the world in ways you don’t notice at the time.

Weston’s resources make many of these things possible. Generations of residents have also made choices about what they believed was worth supporting. I’ve benefited from those choices without thinking much about them. Writing this column has made me notice them differently.

For now, though, I’ve got calculus homework to finish.