Many articles make it seem like going to an all-girls Catholic high school was the greatest thing in the world. It wasn't. There are so many things that I disliked about my high school, but there were a couple of good things too. So here is the unadulterated truth of what my high school was like.
1. Girls still wore make-up
*gasp* The truth is out. Girls still wear make-up even when there aren't any boys. How do I know? I wore make-up sometimes. My friends wore make-up. We wore it because we liked to wear it. Make-up was still a thing.
2. Hair was also often straightened or curled.
"Why yes, I did curl my hair for class today! Why? Because I actually woke up with enough time to do it and I felt like it so I did." And so did many of the girls at my 200 students high school. Not saying messy buns and unbrushed hair wasn't also pretty popular, but there was also some pretty great hair days.
3. Uniforms weren't comfortable
They were cheaply made and over-priced. Also, who finds tights that ride down and make you feel like you have a diaper on comfortable? No one!
4. The greatest lesson I ever learned was how to get dressed in my car
Traffic and my inability to wake-up on time pretty much guaranteed I was constantly late to school. By senior year, I had perfected running out of my house in spandex shorts and a tank top and putting on the rest of my uniform on the drive to school.
5. Everybody changed everywhere
In bathroom stalls, by the lockers, in the parking lot... It was another great lesson: how to change from a regular bra to a sports bra under a giant t-shirt.
6. There was drama
So much drama. Just because it's a small school doesn't mean everybody gets along. The whole school once witnessed a fist fight break out in the middle of a rally.
7. Cliques still existed
Sure everybody mixed together every now and then and there was complete freedom to move between groups, but people still tended to hang out with the same people every lunch time.
8. Popular kids still existed
There was a specific group of girls that ran the school. They were in EVERYTHING and never got in trouble for short skirts. But chances were they were still your friends so you didn't really care.
9. It was iffy as a minority kid
This is speaking for myself, and a few of the other minority kids that I talked to about this. Look, my school was mostly white. I was not. It was weird and often times straight uncomfortable as they would unwittingly say some pretty racist stuff, especially the boys from our brother school.
10. It was pretty much the same as other high schools
There were bad teachers, there were amazing teachers. Some people had sex, some didn't. Some smoked and partied, others didn't. The only difference is that our parents paid for us to wear terrible uniforms and drive across town, and also there were only girl students but whatever.
Look, all-girls schools aren't all that they're cracked up to be. And yes, every school is different, but it's kind of ridiculous to say everything was all sunshine and rainbows all the time. It wasn't. It was high school.