I’ve lived in Carlisle my entire life in North Middleton Township. Both of my parents are from the area – my mom is a graduate of Carlisle High School and my dad attended Trinity. My educational experience started with attending Bellaire Elementary School, then Wilson Middle School, and then Carlisle High School where I will graduate in the spring. Throughout my entire education, I can’t honestly say that I have a favorite teacher. Each and every one of them was incredible and there is no doubt in my mind that the things they taught me have shaped me to be the person that I am now.

Looking back, I can say without a doubt that Bellaire was definitely the most diverse school in the district. Attending Bellaire during my formative years of learning absolutely had an impact on me socially and politically. I was exposed to all different kinds of people and socioeconomic statuses while attending Bellaire. Thinking about my social circle, I always had a lot of friends from all different kinds of backgrounds. I had friends that struggled to have food on their table at night and friends that had more money than they knew what to do with. I’ve seen so many different situations and I think that’s definitely shaped me to be the person that I am now.

All in all, Carlisle is such a great town! You always hear people complain about there being nothing to do, but then when you go someplace else, you realize that Carlisle has a lot to offer. I love all the different local food places – like the Hamilton and Miseno’s for example. And then you have the historical aspects of our town and the incredible amount of culture that resides here. Oh, and don’t forget about our sports teams.

When I’m not enjoying the many things our town offers, I’m usually just hanging out with my friends. And we aren’t holding political rallies downtown, we usually go to the movies or in the summer, we swim at a friend’s house. There are also all kind of parks and spaces in the community that offer tons of places to play games. When it’s nice outside, you often can find us at the Dickinson fields playing soccer or shooting basketball over by the Kline Center.

And in regards to the people, even with how diverse our community is, it also seems to be incredibly inclusive. There are tons of people from all different kinds of backgrounds and I truly feel that the people of Carlisle do their best to get along. Especially over the past couple of years – I think the residents have taken a more inclusive approach to the community and that’s a good thing.

But, this hasn’t always been the case. There has always been some sort of a division among of all the different kinds of people here. This division was really evident to me when I got to middle school. You’d see kids separated into their own friend groups, typically defined by their race. But as we got into high school, things became more cohesive – we realized it was more about inclusion than anything else and from that, we were able to learn so many different things about each other. I have friends from different groups that reach different groups that hang out with different groups. But I definitely saw the challenge of people not always getting along in terms of who people were, where they came from, and what they had.

Overall, I think Carlisle is incredibly reflective of the entire country. We have so many different backgrounds of people and so many different opinions, even though it’s a relatively small town. Carlisle seems to be a very microscopic view of what the entire country represents. I mean, you saw that at the rally this weekend – you had both incredibly conservative and liberal people in attendance. You had old, young, black, white, etc. You could see firsthand the diverse community background that Carlisle represents. I think any issue that you see impacting the entire country you can easily see right in our own backyard.

In regards to how we as a community have overcome some of these challenges – It’s pretty evident right? I mean, we have a black, democratic Mayor. And one of the coolest things that I’ve seen is how people are able to set aside their differences to rally around their community. Take our sports teams for example – you’ll see all different groups of people coming to support our local youth sports teams. It’s kind of like this local pride element.

I want to see Carlisle continue on that track. We have a lot of youth in our community that are very attentive to what’s going on in our country and our community and I Carlisle to continue to be a community that shows they care about these issues. I want to keep growing closer as a community – the place that we live in is so unique and I want to keep working to make this the best place it can possibly be. I just love living here and I don’t think I would’ve chosen anywhere else to grow up! – Collin Willard, Senior at Carlisle High School, Age 18