Hatboro-Horsham may seem like just another public school district jammed between more recognizable areas like Central Bucks and Willow Grove, not to mention Philadelphia, but growing up here has proven that HH has its own unique style -- and here are just 10 of the many ways that's true.

1. The Dancing Hats (Go Hatters!)

This is probably the most trademark piece of being a Hatboro-Horsham student: the Hats. Being asked "What is a Hater?" or "Why does your sweatshirt say 'haters' on it?" becomes pretty typical once you get to eighth or ninth grade, because somehow when non Hatters see us, they don't see the second 't' in there. If you Google "weird high school mascots", we have a tendency to show up a lot, and we're damn proud of it. Our Friday Night Lights came with two dancing hats, and that's pretty special.

*Note: the Hatters' mascot comes from the fact that Hatboro gets its name from making hats during the Revolutionary War. What did your town do? (It was probably something slightly cooler, but we found our niche early.)

2. The Keith Valley Challenge

Penn State kids may have THON, but anyone who was from the Hatboro-Horsham school district knows that they had it earlier: they had the Keith Valley Challenge. The KV Challenge, for those who don't know, is an all-night floor hockey tournament in which kids raise money for a variety of charities, in particular the Make-A-Wish foundation. It is the largest Make-A-Wish student fundraiser in the country,having raised over $890,000 in its almost forty years. The fortieth anniversary of the Challenge is in March 2016, continuing an amazing and memorable tradition from 1977 that sprung from making a memorial for a student who died of a heart defect. When alumni look back on their time at HH, the Keith Valley Challenge is one of the greatest highlights between making the team names and shirts (I am a proud alumni of the 2009 "Lucky Lime Green Ladies"), the rally before the floor hockey marathon where the donation total is revealed, and spending all night with your friends before everyone goes on to HH High School.

3. "That's a Simmons/Hallowell/Pennypack/Blair Mill/Crooked Billet kid"

Each of the elementary schools was pretty small except for Simmons, so coming into Keith Valley brought around the excitement of not just meeting kids from one other elementary school, but four other schools. Most of the kids from Hallowell, Pennypack, Blair Mill, and Crooked Billet knew the other kids from their school, but it was the Simmons kids that were the most comfortable with the leap in class size because half of the class was from Simmons to begin with. That's not even to mention the fact that Simmons was also the only one of the elementary schools to not have a "gymacafatorium", so Simmons kids were the ones used to having a separate gym, cafeteria, and auditorium.

4. 80-Minute Classes

While all your other friends were in much shorter classes at Upper Moreland, Upper Dublin, and the Central Bucks schools, Hatboro-Horsham's block schedule had students in four classes a day for eighty minutes each. While none of us were fans of it back then, it sure helped with making our college courses seem short, minus the three-hour seminars that are long no matter what high school you went to.

5. The Hatboro Horsham/Upper Moreland Rivalry

Every Thanksgiving game is against Upper Moreland, and there is hardly a game where the stands are more packed. This rivalry brings out both students and alumni alike to come see some morning football and all their friends. But this rivalry doesn't end with football- every sport enjoys their game with the school down the road, and there are countless inter-school friendships between Hatboro-Horsham and Upper Moreland through being a part of the same out of school activities such as club sports, church, and summer camp.

6. Losing Almost Every Football Game

While the aforementioned rivalry is a ton of fun, Hatboro-Horsham's football team isn't known as one of the best. High school memories go back to going to games to hang out with friends, but knowing that the football team would most likely lose. This prepared many of us who go to small liberal arts colleges where our football teams don't win very much either, so it's not all bad. Meanwhile, the marching band hangs out in the stands and wins competitions every single year.

7. We Have an Amazing Music Program... That is Always Under Threat of Being Cut.

Remember that thing I said about the marching band being extremely talented? They're one of the best in the state, and deserve much more recognition than this Odyssey article. However, they weren't the only ones in the performing arts that kicked some serious ass. Our concert band, jazz band, choir, orchestra, and theater program include many dedicated students who bring out incredible work in their performances, and many of those students have succeeded in regional and state competitions for their respective performing art. Unfortunately, almost every year there's some sort of rumor that funding for the music program is going to be cut. Yes, we're confused too.

8. The Teachers

There were some truly legendary teachers at Hatboro-Horsham. From kindergarten up, the teachers truly cared about students' learning and were passionate about their subjects, and a lot of that passion has been passed down to us. So many students are inspired to try new things and even find their path for college and beyond due to their teachers at HH, and alumni often reminisce about their favorite teachers. Since I'm an alumni, I don't think this counts as being a teacher's pet, but this goes to you, HH teachers: thank you.

9. The Murals

I'm sure almost every high school has murals, but these paintings are a huge part of the HH experience. Whether you were an art major doing one as a graduation project, a club leader making a handprint hall for charity, or the infamous paining of a continued hallway on the third floor, there's very few spots left in Hatboro-Horsham High School that are just white paint, and we love it that way.

10. We Couldn't Wait to Graduate, But There's No Place Like HH

By senior year, most people were just counting down the days until graduation. We wanted to get to college and start a new life, because HH was becoming old news that we were growing out of. And even if we don't miss Hatboro-Horsham, it's the place that shaped us into who we were going into college and created a foundation for the people that we are and the people that we will become.

And since no one other than the choir actually knows the alma mater, let me close with this: GO HATTERS!