If you went to Penn High School, you probably remember some of these struggles. It is a very different high school experience when you have over 3,000 students compared to what you hear about the typical high school experience. Here are some of the many signs that you went to Penn.
1. You knew about two students in your graduating class.
Penn High School's graduating classes are so big they do not even have the facilities to have graduation on school grounds. Penn hold their graduation ceremony in Notre Dame's Joyce Center. During commencement, most students recognize less than half of the names being called.
2. Your graduating class had at least 15 Valedictorians.
Having a huge graduating class can only mean one thing: having an insane number of valedictorians. The valedictorians speeches seemed like they were limited to only a few seconds each so that commencement wouldn't last too long.
3. You graduated with enough college credits to be considered a Sophomore.
Penn loved having college level courses, so much so that they practically forced students to take at least one class for college credit before they graduated. By the time you graduated, you probably had more college credits than the other freshmen at your university.
4. Most of the people you graduated with decided to either go to Indiana University or Purdue.
It seemed like more than half of the people you graduated with decided to go to either IU or Purdue. This made Penn seem more like a training camp for these two universities. It is understandable, seeing as they are some of the most known state schools in Indiana.
5. You got labeled by what middle school you went to.
With three different middle schools leading into the high school, it was obvious there would be some differences between the students. Each of the middle schools had student from vastly different backgrounds. During your freshman year of high school, you ended up getting labeled just because what middle school you happened to go to.
6. For some reason, every student got mysteriously ill before the one pep rally of the year.
Most students made sure to find out before school even started when the pep rally was. They made sure to inform their parents so that they would remember to call the off for a "doctor's appointment." The attendance phone lines were so busy, half of the students didn't even receive their passes before they had to go. The nurse's office was crowded just before the pep rally with students who only found out about it a few minutes before it started.
7. It was possible that you didn't go to class because you couldn't find a parking spot.
Finding a parking spot at Penn was one of the hardest things if you showed up after first block. During second semester, it was even worse once sophomores were able to get parking passes. Some days, you would just have to admit defeat and head home.
8. You wrote more papers for one class than you have for your whole college career.
If you remember anything about classes, it was how many papers you had to write. Your teachers would always say, "We are just getting you prepared for college." After graduating from college, you have to wonder where your teachers went that they actually thought you'd have to write 20 papers a week in college.
9. If you were not on a sports team, you did not enjoy going to Penn.
If you weren't on any sports teams, you felt kind of left out at Penn. You felt like the athletes got special treatment over the other students. It felt like the teachers favored them and the other faculty adored them. It made you hate going to school because you felt like it was unfair.
10. A tornado was more likely than having a snow day
If you went to Penn, you remember sitting at home before school watching the school delays and cancellations on the news. You remembered seeing all of the other schools in your county being canceled, along with some businesses. When it finally passed the P's, you realized that the Penn Harris Madison School Corporation did not cancel school that day. It didn't matter if there was five feet of snow outside, Penn Harris Madison schools would not close.
11. If you rode the bus, you would have to find which one of the 200 buses was yours.
Riding the bus home was hard for Penn students, not because they smelled. It was hard because you had to find your one bus out of the 5 million that they had park out front. The first week of school was mainly spent asking a school official which bus was yours.
12. If you didn't walk fast in the hallways, you ended up getting trampled over.
The hallways felt like stampedes were going through them in between classes. If you didn't move with them, you'd end up getting ran over. It was even worse when half of the students were on their phones and not looking in front of them.
13. You had at least one friend who could break apart the stampede of students so that you could follow them.
With constant stampedes through the halls, it was hard to cut across the hallways to get to your class. You had to constantly find your one friend who could actually push apart the stampede. Usually, it would be you and a couple other friends following them so that you all could make it to class on time and alive.
