I grew up as a typical kid with a very traditional childhood. I lived in a nice house in a newer neighborhood, with my parents, younger brother, and our two dogs. My best friend and I rode our bikes to school most days and in the evenings I came home to dinner on the table. I played basketball and softball and was involved in just about anything a middle schooler could take on at only 13 years old.

I was a fairly happy kid growing up. I had a lot of friends I had made through these numerous activities, especially sports and Girl Scouts. I really enjoyed school and I did very well in it. 8th grade year things changed, although I'm still not sure exactly what made things so different for me. My friends were still around, I still participated in all of the things I loved, but for some reason, 8th grade wasn’t a great year. I felt like many of my friendships were forced, only being held together because our parents were friends and that’s just how it had been for the last 8 years.

I started to hate going to school because I hated the school I went to. I felt like the teachers didn't care and I felt like I was constantly being punished for other students' behaviors. I hated the lunches where I would sit with my friends, yet I would still feel so disconnected from everything going on. My parents grew worried about me. I remember my dad asking me if I were depressed, and me denying it simply because I didn’t think it was possible for a 14 year old to experience depression. But looking back now, I truly think I was.

By the time November came along I told my parents that I didn’t want to go to the public high school that all of my friends couldn't wait to start at. I didn’t know exactly where I wanted to go, but I knew that attending just a larger version of the school I was already at was not the answer for happy high school years. I looked at a couple of smaller schools, some private, some schools of choice, as I struggled through my 8th grade year. I eventually decided on Bishop Kelly High School, the only Catholic high school in the state of Idaho.

Words can’t even begin to describe how nervous I was to start a new school, especially high school, where most kids who came in already knew one another through the many Catholic grade schools in the Treasure Valley. I only knew one person, a senior, when I walked through the school's doors as a freshman. However, it didn’t take long for me to make friends. In fact, I met one of my very best high school friends on that first day of biology class. And it was on that very same day that I felt like I finally belonged, to both a school and a group of the greatest friends I could have ever asked for.

Bishop Kelly was certainly different from what I was used to. We had a fairly strict dress code (most of the time) and were required to take theology classes each semester. Because I’m only Christian and not Catholic, this definitely made me nervous. I had no idea what to expect, especially when I attended my first Catholic mass during that first month of school. But everything was great. I soon learned how things were done, and it was no longer scary. By my senior year, as excited as I was to be done, I was sad to walk out of Bishop Kelly's doors for the last time.

When I say that Bishop Kelly was different, I don’t mean that it was different just because we were allowed to pray during class. It was different in the sense that we were a close-knit family who would have done anything for one another. Because we were a smaller school, we knew the names of every person in our class. Our athletics were some of the greatest in the state, and there was nothing like cheering under the lights of the football stadium on a Friday night. Within the walls of Bishop Kelly I made some of the greatest relationships I have to this day and also some of my favorite memories of all time.

My sophomore year we knelt down in the bleachers as the whole football stadium grew silent, and we prayed for one of the players on the opposing team who was hit so hard he broke his neck. That same year, nearly a hundred of us crammed into our tiny chapel, held hands and prayed on the day the Sandy Hook Shooting took place. We rallied around some of our own classmates and even one of our favorite teachers when they were diagnosed with cancer. We were always the greatest support system when any one of our family members passed away, some being the very parents of our best friends. This was what it meant and will always mean to be a part of the Bishop Kelly family.

If someone were to ask me about my high school experience, I would simply tell them it was probably better than the average teenager's. But really I know that the small school I sometimes said I hated because of the collared shirts we had to wear was what really saved me. I often worried that the price of attending a private school would be a burden on my parents, that maybe it wasn’t worth it. However, about a year ago my dad told me that he believes Bishop Kelly was the best thing that I could have done for myself, that it was a true blessing in disguise.

Hearing him say those words meant a lot. I know he was right because my dad is not religious man and he has always told me that going to school for the education is far more important than going to school for the experience. So for even him to recognize that me attending a small Catholic high school made me the happiest I had ever been was another huge blessing in my book and something I'll always be grateful for.