http://www.makingitcount.com/HighSchool/perspectives/bruno_teresa.asp

All Girls, All Catholic, All the Time
"8th grade socialite" adjusts to single sex high school

By Teresa Bruno, Sophomore

Venturing into an all-girls school was the most frightening experience of my life. I enrolled reluctantly, began fearfully, and survived successfully through freshman year, slowly acquiring friends for life. 

I enrolled at Nazareth with the guiding - more appropriately described as forceful - hand of my parents. They were concerned about my safety and values. All-girls Catholic school seemed to them the best way to provide such securities. I thought differently. 

Entering an all-girls school should have been like a kiss of death to my social life. There seemed to be no chance of meeting guys. There didn't even seem to be the chance to meet people of different backgrounds and beliefs. All girls, all Catholic, all the time: very boring to this ignorant 8th grade socialite, and avid fan of diversity. 

Entering an environment greatly divergent from that which I was accustomed to through Junior High School struck fear in my heart. Every facet of daily behaviors that I had collected from sixth to eighth grade would become trivial the instant I entered the gasping doors. I was the only girl from my grade school to ever attend Nazareth, ruling out opportunities to find other girls with similar pasts. I would no longer be able to seek the abrasive, yet honest opinions of my best guy friends. In other words, I feared that everything would change, igniting a rocket that would send me into an orbit of misery. 

There also stood the immortal fear of turning out like my mother. She went to an all-girls Catholic school, too. "Admirable mother of two" is not a goal I will relate to any time soon. Even with the understanding that my goals will change over time, any thought of following similar footsteps as my mother will always be repulsing. 

These thoughts turned my daydreams, which I often seek refuge in, into insane visions of disaster. I saw myself with no friends, no one to talk to, and losing my way to every class, then failing once I finally arrived. Then, I saw myself as a housewife with ten children and a Garden Club for entertainment. A repressed fear of nuns from kindergarten did not help matters much either. I was on an out of control roller coaster into an uncharted convent, with little hope of escape or survival. 

By great surprise, my fears never came to fruition. My social life remained intact, I made more friends that I could relate to that I ever could imagine, and currently my life bears NO resemblance to that of my mother's! After entering Nazareth, my happiness has exceeded all boundaries and conceptions. 

Sometimes even I wonder how I survived that crucial first month, with so many doubts and fears weighing me down. I know for sure that I would have never endured without the help of my "Big Sisters." They showed me everything I needed to see and taught me everything thing I needed to know, never excluding the impossible biology essays. They welcomed me into their lives and reserved a place for me in their hearts forever. Now, as I get the chance to be a big sister to someone else this year, I can only hope to return the favor.