Did you read the title of this article before you clicked on it? Yeah, I went to an all-girls Catholic high school. Granted, I've been out of high school long enough to be able to look back on my crazy, unique high school experience with uncomfortable laughter, instead of bitterness. But it doesn't mean it made me a little bit strange in the process.
1. Syncing up is very real
First off, going to an all-girls school was a crazy, eye-opening experience in the insane species that is the teenage female. Trust me, every clique on campus synced up, and when a clique synced up, they were suddenly the most emotional group of girls you'd ever met. It taught everyone how to handle the good, the bad and the ugly of the female hormone cycle. If campus was especially hormonal, there was always a teacher's classroom to eat lunch in and escape the madness.
2. Drama
I can't even type the word drama without having flashbacks of girls fighting over who-said-what, who-did-what and who-did-who. Like most all-girls schools, we had a brother school down the street, full of equally hormonal and insane boys. Girls are vicious and for the 100 subtweets directed at you, there were 100 lessons to be learned. Rule #495: Don't sarcastically pray for people you're mad at. Whatever your religious views, karma's a bitch, yo.
That said, if you graduated hell *ahem, high school* with a few true friends, those friends were forever. Those were the friends who stuck by your side when your other friends left you in the dust to chase the newest, coolest drama. The ones who stayed in touch after graduation? Those were the girls who had a head on their shoulders, who were capable of anything and who would be sending you invites to their weddings when they settle down. (Chanelle, Kaitlin, that one goes out to you.)
3. Boys
Remember that all-boys school down the street from us? For every college sorority house getting ready on the day of formal, there's an all-girls school going twice as hard. If we had mass, or pictures, or basically any activity with the boys, you could smell hair burning and see the cloud of perfume from miles away. Girls were nothing if not a dedicated group when it came to hanging out with guys.
4. Uniforms
Not every private high school in my hometown had a uniform, but we definitely did. I'm talking about the plaid skirts, the white polos, the "I got detention for wearing gray socks today" type of uniform. It made coming to college an extremely freeing experience because, in college, people wear jeans whenever they want and sometimes people even wear tank tops that are less than three inches wide. *Gasp*
5. Religion
I'm not Catholic, so it's the ultimate irony I ended up at a Catholic school. We took a religion class all four years, and I graduated high school with practically the same level of Catholicism I entered with. I sat through thousands of prayers, dozens of masses and a ridiculous amount of Bible Jeopardy's. The fact I managed to graduate without being forced into the Catholic faith is actually pretty impressive. That said, once I got to college, I totally became an ordained minister. Wanna hire me, yo?
6. Thoughts and Conclusions
Catholic school was a crazy, hectic experience that I wouldn't change for the world. Sure, it sucked to sit through hours of mass and to be surrounded by so many close-minded people, but it's turned me into the person I am today, and for that, I am eternally grateful.
