Anyone who went to an all-girls school can truly understand how different it is from spending your school years actually mixing with the opposite sex.
Moving to a mixed school for sixth form, I was truly shocked about how different it was being in a classroom environment with um, boys!
Plus I’ve come to the conclusion in adult life that some of the socially unacceptable things I do now is all down to my all-girls school education. Can you relate?
1. You’ve mastered the art of the professional rolling up of the skirt… unless you were really rebellious and took to it with a pair of scissors.
2. You don’t just know every word to Mean Girls, but have been in many of those situations IRL.
3. The male teachers never clocked on that you had your period every week when you wanted to skive class to meet your friend in the toilet. They’d never dare question the natural bodily processes of a woman!
4. However the female teachers were a lot harder to fool…
5. That didn’t stop you throwing the period card into the ring during PE lessons, you even came with a forged note from your mum if you were that desperate.
6. However if you really did come on your period at school, no fear! Just walk into the form room and ask, and you’ll have tampons and sanitary pads of all shapes and sizes appearing from school bags.
7. The school hierarchy was based on the size of your bag – you immediately regret the day your mum convinced you to wear that Roxy Girl one that slapped against your calves as you walked to school.
8. When the school bell rang for the end up of the day you could barely move in the toilets with how many girls were trying to apply their makeup before seeing the neighbouring boys school at the bus stop.
9. You saved all the nice Topshop/Jane Norman bags to carry stuff into school with because no-one wants to be seen with their lunch in a supermarket carrier bag.
10. The words ‘Now ladies’ became a part of daily life and you started to get really annoyed if anyone referred to you as a ‘girl’.
11. You probably still pull your tights up in public because it’s definitely socially acceptable to do that. No?
12. Thinking you were proper cool because you had all the good stationery… yes that also meant the smelly gel pens that everyone was desperate to use.
13. Ouija boards were the only things people did at lunchtime one year.
14. Kissing all of your best friends twice on the cheek every morning and every afternoon because you thought you were the new cast of Sex and the City.
15. If there was a remotely decent looking male teacher, he became the heart throb of the school.
16. There was also most likely a rumour going round that he snogged a sixth-former at prom.
17. Any opportunity to see the boys from the other school sent you and your group of friends into states of hysteria, especially if one of you had been texting him.
18. If you had a really special relationship with one of them, your name may appear in emoticon hearts on MSN messenger. True love.
19. Break ups were the worst and it usually consisted of crying in the toilet uncontrollably as all of your friends cuddled you and gave you the ‘you don’t need no man’ talk.
20. If you were ever in a teacher’s office, or given a Saturday detention, you suddenly became the queen of school and people worshiped you and your bad-ass attitude.
21. Still now you never underestimate the ability of another woman’s strength. You’ve seen first-hand a fight between two girls at school and you fancy keeping your hair in your head.
22. Stuffing your phone down your bra or readjusting your bra in public was just a normal thing to do.
23. The first girl in your class to have sex became like the Messiah. Girls would gather round her in a circle to hear her words of wisdom.
24. And some of the sex stories to circulate around the year sent the gossip mill into overdrive. I mean who could ever forget the time Jenny thought she was pregnant because even though they didn’t have sex, she WAS in a swimming pool with a boy.
25. Half of your Facebook friends now have babies.
26. You couldn’t possibly walk anywhere without linking arms with your BFF.
27. Over sharing isn’t something you’re familiar with and you don’t realise until you’re put into a mix-gender environment that some things are best kept to yourself.
28. You and your friends probably did the weirdest things at school because there were no boys around to impress.
29. And these girls are probably still your closest mates, because if you make it out of an all-girls school together, you can take over the world together.
