Public School. You spent more time there in your first 18 years of life than in your actual home. Elementary school, middle school, junior high, and high school, it was your life- friends, crappy cafeteria food, good teachers, bad teachers, gym, recess, study hall, homeroom, assemblies, concerts, pep rallies, sports, and memories. You enjoyed it, complained about it, and reminisce every now and then, but you survived. But as awful as was at times you came out with more skills than you know. Here are a few…
1. People Skills
You have exceptional people skills, even if you were the quietest kid. Think about it, whether or not you were extroverted or introverted you figured out how to deal with people in ways that other kids who went to a single gender school or were homeschooled know how to do. You can figure out social groups with ease and deal with even the most annoying peer.
2. Gym
Everyone had to take it, it’s just one of those things everyone can relate too. However, you learned how to do just enough in the class to not only pass, but to not get too sweaty for the rest of your day
3. Time
You’d be lying if you said you hadn’t memorized the start and end time to every class in order to get there right as class began and leave right as the bell rang. Hell, I can still recite the start times for my last four classes of senior year.
4. Schedules
Unlike college, you didn’t get the freedom to decide when your class was, just what you were taking (for most people that is). That meant knowing what classes your friends took and where so you could always meet up as soon as it ended and right before assemblies so you didn’t have to sit next to that kid who always smelled like dirty laundry.
5. Fire Drills
From faulty smoke alarms, fake bomb threats, moronic kids pulling the fire alarm, and sometimes actual fires, you know how to handle these like a champ. Some kids cried, some kids left school, and sure, private schools had these too, but I can guarantee you we had more, and for dumber reasons.
6. Sex-Ed
Unlike an all-guys or all-girls private school, you had to go to school with boys AND girls (ew cooties) which provided for some very funny, awkward, and/or awful classes, one of which being sexual education. Sex-Ed is a staple in American public schooling, your parents went through it, we went through it, and our kids will probably take a sex-ed class at some point in their schooling. There’s awkward tensions, funny euphemisms, and just awful jokes. There’s really nothing like it.
7. Parking
When you were finally old to drive it was always on your mind and when you finally got to drive to school you really became hot shit (that didn’t last long, though). You had to fight tooth and nail (or bumper to bumper) to get out of the parking lot on time and had to secure the best spot in the morning to avoid getting that tardy.
8. Bus Rides
Whether it was a field trip or your only way to school, you made the best of them. Everyone made a huge deal if a boy and girl were sitting together, boys would draw these simple drawings with two circles and an oval that oddly resembled a face all over the misty windows and bus drivers seemed to get meaner as you got older, that’s just how it was.
9. Middle School
It was the best three to four years of your life, duh. Really no question here, it sucked, everyone changed both emotionally and physically, and after it was done you became a stronger person. Going to school with girls and guys during such a dramatic time really sucks at the time, but once it’s passed, you can look back and laugh.
10. Clothing
We didn’t have to wear uniforms (thank heavens), so that only meant we actually had to put effort into how we look. We all went through phases- sweatpants, preppy, skinny jeans, shorts year round, Hollister, Abercrombie, the list can go on and on, so I’m not saying private school kids don’t know how to dress but sometimes it wasn’t easy looking good five days in a row, just saying.
