Only three and half years ago, I was released from the hallowed halls of my all-girls school into the ambiguous world of coeducational college. Although the first semester away at college is strange for all new freshmen, it is a special period of adjustment to basic social norms for those of us who do not know of education outside of our all lady habitat. Here are a few ways that our single-sex education will brand us as abnormal for the rest of our college careers.
1. Two inches has become a very broad and flexible measurement, thanks to those homeroom skirt to knee hemline checks. You should use a ruler when it counts.
2. Showering daily will always seem a little obsessive. Have people never heard of baby powder and spray deoderant?!
3. Life feels like one big dress-down day and we simply cannot handle the freedom, at first. You subconsciously layout outfits in hues of navy blue and white until you finally give up and surrender to sweatpants.
4. That being said, once you find your everyday post-uniform style you will never be 100 percent comfortable wearing the two colors together, again.
5. You will always be skeptical of the men in the classroom. They can never be trusted.
6. Yelling down the school hallway requesting feminine products will not ellicit the same favorable reaction that it did in high school.
7. Plaid skirts evoke feelings of anxiety.
8. You will probably be offended when people ask if your schooling was a punishment decided on by your parents. You see private schooling as a privilege that should be respected. It should not be referenced in comparison to military school or prison.
9. You will feel no shame panhandling other students for vending machine money. Besides, you would do it for them. Maybe.
10. You feel a natural camaraderie with other women for no reason. Some may say you are a little too comfortable saying and doing whatever you want around strangers of the same sex.
These social hurdles will get smaller as you age through college, but a little bit of your fabulous female background will always be a part of you. True, we are not -- and probably never will be -- what society deems normal. But you are lucky that you got to figure out exactly the way you wanted to be, without the confusing constraints that societal pressures place on young women in a "normal" high school setting . A fellow all-girls school innovator said it best: "If you're a strong female, you don't need permission." Lady Gaga.
