When you grow up in a small private high school, it becomes theonly thing you know. You just live in this bubble, not that it's a bad thing. Sometimes you just don't even realize how big the world is. In college, people look at you like you're crazy when you tell them your high school graduating class was only made up of 40 students. But you just smile and nod, because growing up with these 40 people in your little bubble was a huge blessing, and you didn't just leave high school with acquaintances and classmates, you left with a family.

1. Football? What's that?

Your school was way too small to have a football team, and everyone was totally fine with it. In the fall, your homecoming game was a soccer game against your biggest rivals, and during the winter, Friday night basketball games were where it was at.

2. You had known all of your classmates since kindergarten...

...Or maybe even earlier than that. You had all grown up together. You saw each other grow, you argued, you cried, you laughed, but at the end of the day, you loved those people more than words could had ever said.

3. Everyone knew everything about one another.

Including your teachers — they knew everything about all the students. The teachers knew every student’s parents and siblings; they knew who was dating whom, who was taking whom to prom, and probably what everyone was planning on doing over the weekend. It’s probably even safe to say that the majority of your class were Facebook friends with your teachers, and it was totally not weird at all.

4. The dress code.

If you were lucky enough to not have to wear a uniform to school, you definitely had a strict dress code. Most of the girls could get away with short skirts and dresses on game days, but don’t even think about wearing a hat or spaghetti straps — and god forbid leggings.

5. You've been preparing for college since sixth grade.

When you started sixth grade, your teachers told you, “Now that you’re in middle school, your grades really matter. Colleges are going to look at these grades in a few years.” And it terrified you. Then. But now you appreciate those teachers who pushed you and believed in you when you didn’t believe in yourself — even in sixth grade, when our test grades really didn’t matter.

6. Two words: Senior. Trip.

You had most likely been looking forward to this since you were old enough to know it even existed, which was probably somewhere around third grade. Every year, the senior class got to go somewhere fun, like Disney World, for a week while everyone else suffered through school. When you finally got to go on the senior trip with your class, it did not disappoint. This was probably one of the best times of your life, and it absolutely flew by. This is one of those things you will look back on for the rest of your life and wish you could do it all over again, just to relive those fun memories with some of the people you love the most.

7. Graduation was not a happy occasion for most of you.

It was basically a cry fest. Although you were excited about leaving for college in a few months and the new adventures that would come from it, you simply weren’t ready to leave the place you had grown up. If you weren’t crying before the ceremony started, it was pretty much assumed that you had no heart.

8. You now have the best support system and biggest fans.

Those teachers who pushed you in middle and high school are still cheering you on, even though you graduated years ago. They still think about you; they still pull for you, and you most likely still keep in contact with them. You may not be as close with the people you graduated with, but when you do get together over breaks, it’s like nothing has changed. They are pulling for you too. They love seeing you do big things and follow your dreams, and they are so incredibly proud of who you’ve become.