For my last three years of high school I attended what could be simplified as a boarding school for nerds. I personally loved the experience, but can easily say that boarding school isn’t what a lot of people think it is. So I’m here to tell you about my experience.

1. There’s never a bad time to make ramen or order pizza.

Literally. Never. Meal times? They don’t matter! Not when you’ve got class until 4:15, and a basketball practice until 6:30 followed by volunteer work until 8:30. So order pizza at 9:00 at night? Throw ramen in the microwave at midnight? It’s how you eat. The only problem is when you finally go home and your parents give you quite the look when you ask them what’s for dinner at 10 o’clock at night.

2. Your school has it's own language.

The list of words that are specific to our school is outrageous. Half because my school was ridiculous and refused to call anything by the normal name, and half because the students were the same way. Walking into the school for the first time can be pretty confusing. Not knowing where anything in the school is one thing, but not understanding the names of them is a whole other. Why can’t we just call the library a library? Apparently, that would just make too much sense.

You gets used to it, though, and eventually and the words start to roll off your tongue. Then it leaves you worried about transitioning from the slang of your high school to that of whatever college you’re planning to attend.

3. Getting “The Look” from people.

If you’ve gotten The Look, you know what I’m talking about. The oh, you go to boarding school look. Or in more honest terms the, oh you’re a nerdy rich kid look. The look that leaves me feeling the need to explain that my school is state funded and thus not expensive. I’ve often thrown out the phrase “residential school” instead of boarding school, but it’s possible that just sounds more snobby. Either way. You get The Look.

4. It’s not Hogwarts.

Sadly, I did not go to Hogwarts. There were no moving staircases, and I did not take Charms. I did not live in the Hufflepuff dormitory. I was not taught by McGonagall. If you think that this topic is a metaphor, or has some greater message, you’re wrong. I just wish I went to Hogwarts.

Anyway. Moving on.

5. You live in a bubble.

The outside world? That’s a thing? It’s a pretty easy thing to forget about when you spend your life on a campus. Sure, there’s the internet, but let’s not pretend we spend any time we have not doing homework on anything other than Tumblr and Netflix. It didn’t help that we didn’t have television at our school. It was always a running joke that people in jail had it better than we did because at least they had cable.

6. Breaking the bubble.

The thing about bubbles is that they eventually pop. Going home and returning to the rest of the world can be quite the experience. I can’t speak for everyone, but for me, it got worse and worse the longer I was away at school. At first, I was completely convinced I would remain BFF’s with all the people from my hometown. That most definitely did not happen.

I come from a really small town, and that town tends to be in its own bubble. The boarding school bubble definitely floats in a different direction than the small town bubble, and it’s always weird trying to re-enter the small town one.

7. Mandatory fun.

Being forced into fun is a real thing, and can happen at all hours of the day. The thing about living at your school is that you live there. Crafts at 10:00 pm on Monday? Sure. Oddly formal dinner event until midnight on a Tuesday? Why, of course. Glow in the dark capture the flag on Wednesday? Why not!

Don’t get me wrong here, a lot of the mandatory fun was fun. I’ve made some top-notch crafts and dressed up quite sharp for an event before. It definitely doesn’t hurt that your roommates are attending this mandated fun alongside you.

8. Having roommates can be the best thing in the world.

I will not lie to you. Having a roommate can be downright terrible. However, the problems always stem from the actual roommate, not the concept of living with someone. For the last two years of high school I lived in a quad, meaning I had three roommates. They became the best friends I ever had.

Being friends with people you live with is different than normal friends. It’s better. They see you at your worst, and for some reason, they still want to be near you. They’re right there struggling next to you when it’s one in the norming and your body’s shaking from caffeine as you try to finish your math project. They’re laughing maniacally with you at three in the morning as you throw animal crackers around the room and marathon Youtube videos. They binge a ridiculous amount of food on Parks & Rec inspired Treat Yo Self weekends. They’re there. You cannot escape them. But if you’ve found the right roommates, you won’t want to.

9. There are rules.

Ever read John Green’s Looking for Alaska? Well I’m sorry, but that’s a load of horse crap when it comes to how boarding schools actually work. People have to keep in mind that these are a bunch of 14- 18 year-olds. We did not run wild. As we became upperclassmen we got more privileges and freedoms, but there were no boys casually walking into girls’ rooms. That was a no-no and a half.

But don’t get me wrong, we were no military school. We had our fair share of fun, which leads me to my next point.

10. You will miss it.

I only just graduated this spring, but I am already severely missing all of it. At times, it was awful. There were days that I was so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open and I’d only consumed a package of ramen and three cups of coffee that I wanted nothing more than to scream screw it! And go just go back home.

But the good times outnumbered the bad. For me, boarding school was lying on the ground with my roommates and laughing my ass off. It was 9 o’clock visits to the grocery store and screwing around. It was random dance parties and late nights fueled by coffee. It was intense procrastination, and the phrase “future Ashley’s problem.” I loved it, and now all I can do is hope that college is a lot of the same.