I have always been at a Christian school until I came to BGSU. More specifically, I have been at a Lutheran school until I came to BGSU. When I was in 8th grade, trying to decide where to go to high school, I knew that I was going to Lutheran West. My parents went to Lutheran West along with my aunt and uncle. There are some things that I remember fondly from when I attended Lutheran West. Here are 15 signs that someone went to Lutheran West.

1. "Is that a Catholic school?"

I always get frustrated when I tell people that I went to Lutheran West and they ask me, "Oh, is that a Catholic school?" You will not believe how many times I have been asked this question. Some of those people are even Christians. If I went to a Catholic school, I would think that the school would be called Catholic West.

2. You had chapel twice a week.

For those of you who do not know what chapel is, it is just a mini version of church or mass. When I was in grade school, we had chapel on Wednesdays. At Lutheran West, we had it on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Yeah, at times it was annoying, but the good news was that we had shortened class periods for the whole day.

3. You had two study halls, regular and religion.

Although it was great to have another study hall (if you even had one), there are times when you would have absolutely nothing to do. Luckily, you might have had some religion teachers who let you bring food and beverages. Most of the time, I had nothing to work on in my religion study hall because I already finished it during my regular study hall.

4. You hate Fairview.

Every high school has a rival and, at Lutheran West, it was Fairview. We hated them and they hated us. We thought that we were better than them and they thought the same. When it comes to football, it is very important that one of us beats the other team. I hate the school, but I do have a few friends who went to Fairview. Thankfully, I do not hate them.

5. You had to keep your shirt tucked.

This was the thing that any guy at Lutheran West hated when it came to shirts. Shirts always had to be tucked in and it was not fun. You had to watch out because there were some teachers who were very strict about this rule. If your shirt is not tucked in, there was a chance that you could get a detention. I'm so glad that is not a rule in college.

6. You had to have the "appropriate" skirt length.

How many girls at school got away with having a skirt too short? I kid you not, some of the girls did not follow the "fingertip" length for a skirt in school. If a teacher knew for sure that it was too short, girls would have to wear special pants that they kept in the office for them to wear all day and they probably got a detention as well. It always seemed like girls got away with a lot of things and this was one of them.

7. You wore your hoodie over your "dress shirt."

I think that I have done this a few times during my chapel days. I was never a fan of dressing up in a dress shirt and tie for chapel days, but that was the dress code. If it was colder, I would put my hoodie over my dress shirt or lack of one. Many guys did this, along with girls. I believe that if you did wear a hoodie during school, it had to be a Lutheran West kind or the same colors. I could be wrong.

8. The sports teams weren't the greatest.

OK, there were possibly seasons when the men's basketball team was pretty good, but never made it far in the tournament. There was a time when the golf team made it to state along with a few bowlers on the bowling team, but for the majority of our time at Lutheran West, we did not have that many good teams. It was still a fun time to be at those games, but the losing did suck. I mean, it was not fun to finish your senior year when the football team lost 0-10.

9. Intramurals were more important than the main sports.

I think that the majority of students at Lutheran West knew that intramurals are one of the most important things to have in high school. We even had shortened class periods so that the entire school could watch the championship game in intramural basketball and volleyball. I mean, this is the "Intramural Championship of the World." For the majority of the time the seniors were the winners, but there have been times when a sophomore or junior class upset the seniors. I loved intramurals and I was happy to be a part of them for basketball and volleyball. Sadly, my team never made it to a championship.

10. You had senior privilege.

I could not wait to be a senior in high school because I wanted to have senior privilege. Senior privilege either let you come in the school later at second period or you could leave before the last period. Not all seniors had senior privilege and not all seniors were allowed to have it. I think that you had to have a certain GPA to be allowed. I know a few juniors were allowed to have it if they had a job right after school. I was happy to have senior privilege and I took it before last period.

11. You know almost everybody.

When your entire school has around 450 students, it's not that difficult to know each other. Plus, the majority of the people at Lutheran West were related somehow. I graduated with 90 students and I knew each of them. You had some students who looked at you like this is your first year at Lutheran West, but it is what it is. Thankfully, graduation goes a lot faster than most schools that probably have 450 students in their graduating class.

12. Target is the hangout spot.

There had to have been one time when you were staying after school with some friends and you decided to go to Target. Target is right next to Lutheran West and so many students would go over there to just walk around or possibly to get food from the stand. They also have a Starbucks, which came in handy. There are also rumors of the Target parking lot being a "hangout spot" for particular students, but I won't go into detail on that.

13. You paid for dress down days.

I loved days when we could dress down and wear jeans, but most of those days, you had to pay to wear them. Yes, you had to pay to wear jeans. I think that it was $2 and most of the money either went to Boosters or for some particular club. Some students did not have the money to pay for jeans, but there were times when people like me wore jeans and did not pay.

14. City Serve saved you on service hours.

Everybody at Lutheran West knows about service hours and everybody knows about City Serve. You need to have a certain amount of service hours each year in order to advance to the next grade or, for seniors, to graduate. City Service is an organization/project where you go to a certain school or location that needs help. Maybe a school needs help getting their classroom put together. Maybe a school needs help with their yard. Maybe a certain place needs their walls painted. It was something great to be a part of, but how many students came just for the service hours? I mean, you did get about 6-8 hours from City Serve. I was able to do it for my sophomore year and it was nice to help this school out.

15. You went to "West."

No, we do not go to Lutheran West, we go to "West." So many of us always tell our friends what happened at "West" or who might be leaving "West." I did not realize how many schools made fun of us for calling it "West." I know that I called it "West" before, but if somebody asked me where I went to high school, I would tell them that it was Lutheran West.

I don't know about you, but I really did enjoy my four years at Lutheran West. I could not have seen myself going to any other high school. It was great to continue my Christian education in high school and to know others who follow it. I made some great friends and some of them I still talk to and hang out with. Yes, there were ups and downs, but there were definitely memories that will never go away. One of my brothers graduated from Lutheran West and another is a sophomore. I know that they share the same things about Lutheran West from their experience then and now. No matter what, I will always be a Lutheran West Longhorn!