From seventh grade to twelfth grade I attended a small private Christian school. This meant a lot of rules, uniforms, and teachers coming to my house for dinner. There were 16 of us in my graduating class, and that is the biggest class to graduate from my school ever. The principal was my dad’s close friend, and I called him “Uncle.” Here’s a list of a few things that only those who went to a small private school would know.

1. The teachers and your parents were all friends.

They had each other’s cell numbers and email addresses. You couldn’t do anything out of line because you knew your parents would know about it before the last bell rang.

2. You played on every sports team.

Volleyball, basketball and soccer. All of them. You were on the team or there was no team; you just had to sign up. Your skill level was taken into consideration, but so was the amount of people that needed to be on the roster.

3. There was so much drama.

Like I said, there were only 16 students in my graduating class and about 200 kids total in kindergarten through twelfth grade. That meant news travels fast. So and so got a new girlfriend? Everyone knew before the second hour. (Teachers included)

4. Dating was impossible.

Speaking of relationships, dating at my high school was impossible. Some of my classmates had been in the same class since kindergarten or early elementary. And after you see a guy eat his boogers in elementary school, the potential of dating him diminishes increasingly with every reminder of that memory.

5. So many inside jokes.

When you go to a small school you and your classmates form such a tight-knit community, it’s like a sweater. Even years after graduating my classmates and I still laugh at jokes we made in jr. high and high school.

6. Pop culture what was that?

Sometimes when you hung out with your public school friends you missed the pop culture references they made. You were too busy practicing “Be Thou My Vision” for a chapel special to notice.

7. What is practice?

Speaking of chapel specials, sometimes there was no practice. Sometimes practicing meant running through it once the night before with your group. And that was good enough since your group was about half the student body.

8. Group projects were tricky.

When the teacher announced a group project you and your friends had to figure out how to split the group. But, the good thing was that you knew who worked well together and who didn’t. However, there would always be some kind of big fight between people in your friend group and you would have to rearrange the groups last minute and blah blah blah more drama.

9. Your idea of a wild night was way different from the wild nights of mainstream society.

Your wild night included making candy roses at your principal’s house until midnight while watching “Newsies” and “Phantom of the Opera.” Or it was pulling an all-nighter at your school’s annual end of the year retreat and doing cartwheels in your tent, then sneaking out of your tent to watch the sunrise.

10. You may have been sheltered, but you had a community that was there for you.

When troubles came you had friends not only in your classmates but also in the staff and faculty. When one person went through trials, the whole school supported him or her. You knew that when the rough times came you always had a support group at school.

It was different high school experience from those who went to bigger public or private schools, but I know I wouldn’t trade my high school years for anything.