After attending Catholic school for my entire life, college has been a very strange adjustment. I, along with many of my peers, have been forced to assimilate to a new environment. Please - if you see Catholic school kids like myself, take us under your wing and teach us what life is like beyond our tiny, sheltered Catholic school bubble. Here are a handful of the hardest adaptations we have faced.
1. No longer being able to distinguish different grades by the colors of the student's skirt, pants, or tie
How am I supposed to know who is my age?!
2. Not having to ask to go to the bathroom
You mean there's no sign out sheet or bathroom pass in each classroom?
3. Being able to wear sweatpants to class
Comfort > dressing nice
4. Better yet, receiving little judgment for wearing pajamas to class
So what if it's 12 p.m.... I just woke up, okay?!
5. The glory of having unspoken consent to wear a hat
When you don't feel like doing your hair, throw a hat on!
6. Permission to eat a three-course meal during class
This won't earn me detention??
7. Authorization to leave directly after you finish taking a test instead of having to wait for the last person to complete it
There is no more need for doodling, staring at the wall with a blank stare, or praying the studious kid stops re-checking his work on his test! Woohoo!
8. The stress of having to pick out an outfit for class...
How do my public school roommates not have anxiety about this each night?
9. Having days off from school for holidays other than Catholic Holidays
It's a dream come true!
10. Not having to take a theology class
I love you, Jesus, but some of those high school classes made me want to hit my head against my desk every time I was forced to step foot into the theology classrooms.
11. Freedom to have your cell phone on your desk
The constant fear that it will be taken away for 60 days along with having to pay a $100 fine to get it back is no longer an issue!
12. Feeling like a minority on Ash Wednesday
Only a handful of individuals will be seen with crosses on their foreheads on this day. The rest either forgot, are too busy to go to Mass, or are students who practice other religions.
13. Not having the opportunity to gossip about who received the biggest and darkest ash cross on Ash Wednesday
Ah, the annual tradition is over!
14. Saying prayers each morning as a school does not happen
Never again will you hear the words, "Good morning, Pope John! Please stand for the prayer and pledge."
15. Neither does reciting the pledge of allegiance every day
You can no longer chuckle when the announcer accidentally says, "player and predge" instead of "prayer and pledge."
16. Being able to wear clothing that is appropriate for the temperature
You mean the boys will not get distracted if I wear yoga pants, leggings, or tank tops to class?
17. Being able to change clothes as the weather changes throughout the day
...instead of having to suffer in a sweater in the 90-degree heat
18. No first Friday Mass
It's bittersweet...
19. No longer needing to know the order of the books of the Bible...
(Theology teachers take notes: this is what the index is for!!!)
20. Boys are not required to chop their "luscious flow," and they also can sport any type of facial hair imaginable...
from modeling their mustaches after Yosemite Sam to copying Albus Dumbledore's infamous beard... you name it, they will grow it.
21. Above all - FREEDOM!!!
As the Zac Brown Band would say, we're as "free as we'll ever be!"
