Single Gender Education: An Enlightenment

By Sarah Nolan on March 31, 2014

Mary Catherine Gallagher (Molly Shannon) in Superstar. Image courtesy of Google.

“Wait…are you serious?”

This is the reaction I receive 99.9% of the time when I tell people I went to an all girl’s Catholic high school in Chicago. Just to clarify, when I say Chicago I’m not actually talking about some obscure suburb an hour outside of the city. That’s a story for another day.

Contrary to popular belief people who attend a single gender high school lead pretty normal lives. However, I’d be lying if I said coming to the University of Illinois wasn’t a major adjustment. The following is a list of said differences and similarities to 1) offer you a glimpse into the mythical world of an all-girl high school and 2) put other articles about all-girl high schools to shame.

  • There was a bake sale literally every other day. If you forgot a lunch you could go around tables like a homeless person asking for change. 25 cents guaranteed you at least a cupcake and four cookies.  25 cents doesn’t even get me a load of laundry.
  • A lot of my friendships still revolve around a mutual love for food. To be a human garbage truck is a beautiful thing.
  • Contests for who has the longest leg hair aren’t natural. Who knew?
  • Everyone knew when it was your birthday, even the janitor for God’s sake. I’m lucky if I get a happy birthday text from my grandparents these days.
  • I graduated with 178 girls…there’s 300 people in my Sociology lecture.
  • Sometimes I get this compulsive urge to braid people’s hair. It’s weird, I KNOW, moving on.
  • There isn’t an attendance office to crash in when you’re “not feeling well.”
  • There isn’t a five foot nun roaming around the halls spreading cheer like Santa Clause. Sigh…
  • Every morning you would put on a kilt and polo (usually over your pajamas), throw your hair into the most obnoxious looking rat’s nest bun on top of your head and let the day take you. You couldn’t pay me to wear jeans to class.
  • Living in a sorority house has been a walk in the park. Some people are uncomfortable with it….I’m like welcome to the last four years of my existence.
  • We were insanely close with our teachers and knew everything about them: stories of their engagements, whether they were married or single and how many kids they had (the usual). I couldn’t pick my professors out of a line up.
  • Vodka water lime? Um I’ll have a beer thanks.
  • Believe it or not we can communicate with the male species. If anything our aggressive confidence and inability to filter our thoughts adds to the allure…..right?
  • Pep rallies were intense and bizarre. Exchanges haven’t been able to fill the hole in my chest.

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