I’ve attended small schools my whole life. After 13-years, I’ve realized what I like and dislike about attending small schools, mainly a small high school.

1. Everybody knows everybody.

My entire high school didn’t have a student body count of more than 200. Going into freshman year, I knew so many people already, even the upperclassmen. Of course I met new people and saw new faces, but I recognized almost everybody.

2. Teacher student ratio.

I loved how small each of our classes were and I loved how the teachers knew us personally. They knew what sports we played, our siblings, our families and even what we like to do in our free time. We all felt so close with our teachers that we were not afraid to ask for help or ask a silly question. I loved that the teachers could joke with us and we could joke right back at them.

3. Everybody participates in something.

When there is a limited number of students, everybody does something. Whether it be basketball, volleyball, football (which almost every boy in the school was a part of), math team or drama, everybody participated in something. When you have a big school, only the best kids are able to be on the team, leaving others felt left out or not good enough. Here, it didn’t matter you skill level, if you wanted to play, the team welcomed you with open arms.

4. Limited options for classes.

Being a small school, there are not enough teachers or resources to have all the classes you would like. At the local public schools, students could be in sewing, cooking, fashion design, engineering classes or shop classes. At my tiny school, there were none of those classes. The most different class was parenting, which they don’t have every single year. There is also a limit on AP (advanced placement) classes, which holds back the really intelligent students.

5. Small fan section.

At our basketball and football games, you’re lucky if you get 30 students in the student section. With there being so many students in different sports or students who live half an hour away from the school, a lot of students can’t make it to every single game. Sometimes at our home games, the away team seems to have more fans than us.

6. Everybody is family.

Literally. Half of the school was related in some way. First cousins to second cousins, you were bound to be related to somebody. One of my classmates was related to one of the teachers, where else does that happen? I consider almost everybody in my class to be family, just because there were only 46 of us, and we became so close the past four (or more) years. Some of the kids I graduated with were my classmates since I was in first grade. Some were going to school together since preschool.

7. Saying goodbye is hard.

With knowing everybody so well, and being so close to everybody (even the teachers), graduating and moving to separate colleges is extremely difficult. I’ve gone to school with these people since I was 6 and now I’m moving three-plus-hours away from them. These are the people who I’ve grown up with, who have seen me at my worst and my best, and now we are all going our separate ways.

Even though I saw how much different student life was at the local public schools, how many more options they had (sports, classes, people), I realize how much I love my tiny school. I loved that everybody knew each other, I loved that I was close with my teachers, I loved everything about it.