I grew up in a town with two high schools, a Public High School and a Catholic High School. I attended the catholic high school, and I wouldn't have had it any other way. While attending a catholic high school has its many perks, it also has a few drawbacks. Here are a few:
- You wear the same thing every day... year after year.
Looking in your closet to only find seven pairs of khaki shorts and seven khaki pants and five black polos. Getting dressed up for the weekend or going to church can be very difficult because you are lost in what to wear besides your uniform.
- You go to church at least twice a week as a school/and with your family.
Getting up for church on the weekend was not a question. You got up and gladly got dressed and most likely served mass too. Don’t fool people, because they all know that this is probably your second visit to church this week.
- You are required to take a religion class.
Instead of signing up for a religion class or not even having one provided in your school, you got to take one, every day for 13 years.
- You pray at the beginning of just about everything.
No matter what you are doing or where you are, you better believe you are about to start prayer. You started every class with a prayer and sometimes you even ended class with a prayer.
- You had the before meals pray memorized before you you got to 2nd grade.
“Bless us O’Lord for these your gifts, which we are about to receive from your bounty. Through Christ our Lord. Amen” Sound familiar? I figured.
- K-12 was all in one building.
Instead of worrying about the fastest route to get to your next class, you were worried about how to navigate through the halls in order to not run over the 1st graders. Yes, it was super cute to see all of them and how they are all in awe of the “big kids” but it got to be a little crazy.
- Going out in public after attending an Ash Wednesday Service, you definitely got the looks.
Ash Wednesday service was something that everyone looked forward too, not. Don’t get me wrong everything about the mass was awesome, but when it came time to leave mass, and you were told not to touch the ash on your forehead because something bad may happen, you left it on and wore it with pride. You got the looks if you had to do something after school was let out.
- You often have church songs stuck in your head.
Having mass or music class, you usually leave with either the sending song stuck in your head or a song that you were practicing in music class…. It never fails. “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.” You get the jist of it.
- You had class with the same 20 kids for nearly a whole decade.
Graduating with 24 kids in your class, you become close to them for about 12 years. Realizing senior year that only about half of those kids actually started Kindergarten with you makes your bond with all of them a little more special.
- The only time you’re allowed to touch someone of the opposite sex is at mass during the Lord’s Prayer
You were taught at school dances to always leave room for the Holy Spirit, or save room for Jesus. Attending mass and sitting with your class and sitting next to a guy in your class, was just about the only time that you were actually able to touch someone of the opposite sex. (I mean this is the total normal way of course, not being creepy just stating the facts, hahaha)
Attending a Catholic High School was a great experience and I would not change it for anything. I hope if you attended a Catholic High School as well, that these give you a little giggle and make you realize that there are more than just you thinking about some of these things.
