Signs That You Once Were In an All-Girls School

I was surfing Facebook as usual and I come across this article/link about “10 Signs That You Once Were In an All-Girls School”. Of course it caught my attention because I was from an all-girls school. I wanted to see how much truth was in that article and how much bullshit too.

So here are my thoughts….

Just in case, if you would like to read the whole article, it can be found at this URL:

10 SIGNS THAT YOU ONCE WERE IN AN ALL-GIRLS SCHOOL

I am not sure if it was the best decision my parents had ever made for me but I am guessing it was the most convenient as my mum was from Katong Convent, and technically there wasn’t much needed for me to get a direct entrance in to this popular all-girls school. But I am glad they chose the easy route and that I went to KC. So much life lessons learned during my years of schooling there, so many great friends made who I am still in touch with today and best of all, so many wonderful memories made.

But emerging with great stories and lifelong friends even after graduation and after all these years…. I cannot disagree with that.

OK so the first sign they mentioned was “There is no Valentine’s Day. Only Friendship Day.”

This is utter rubbish because I remember us celebrating Valentine’s Day on February 14 and Friendship Day somewhere in August if I am not mistaken. Of course Valentine’s Day in an all-girls school would mean that we just exchanged cards and gifts… some would buy themselves flowers from the market across from our school. But being from KC, we were lucky that St Patrick’s (all-boys school) was right across the street from us and was connected by a bridge that was called “the love bridge”.

For me, personally, I always celebrated Valentine’s Day since the day I started life in KC Secondary school and yes, I would be one of those girls who would be spoiling the market because I never had to buy myself flowers on Valentine’s Day. Be it a boy from St Patrick’s or Maris Stella. (You know who you are because you’re still on my FB friend list!!)

Still on this topic, my group of friends and I got the all-girls school nonsense beat. During school hours, we were with the girls but after school, it was a whole different story. We’d make friends with the guys when we hung out at Parkway Parade and better still, we took Squash (Racquetball) for CCA so we could go over to St Patrick’s School for lessons.

We sit with our legs open in class

It says in the article that the more “chor lor” (meaning; rough or crude in Hokkien) you are, the better. What nonsense!! Have you heard our school’s motto, “Simple in Virtue, Steadfast in Duty”? Haha…..

But seriously…. I know some girls then who sat like truck drivers. They would have their PE shorts under their uniforms so no matter how wide their legs were apart when they sat, you will never see their panty!

For me, I was a little “chor lor” but deep down I was still a lady. I sat with my legs crossed all the time… well mostly…. if you would consider these photos below “chor lor”…. but to my defense, I was wearing jeans. 

We have a #girlsquad

I don’t think back then we knew how to use hashtags (#) or what exactly they were except for calling it the pound sign. I also do not think we called our group of close friend the ‘girlsquad’. To be honest, I don’t recall what we called ourselves or what we were referred to as. You could not say gang because that would be a BIG no-no at that time…. So whatever it was, we did have our own little group of friends who were almost inseparable. We were ever so ready to beat up the guy who made our friend cry. We shared every little secret with one another and at times we even fought over the same guy… but through it all, we were still the best of friends.

Every male teacher is an eye-candy

Say what you want. As much as eye-candy options were limited in an all-girls school…we were not blind, desperate or stupid. With the male teachers we had for choices …. if they were the last guys on earth, even at that young age, I would rather be single or lesbian.

You can shamelessly ask to borrow a pad

I am not too sure about this though. If I remember correctly, during my time in school, we would be embarrassed about periods or having to change in class, in front of all our classmates when we had PE classes.

I guess times have changed and girls these days are more open and straight forward when it comes to things like this. I think it is because of the different upbringing. Girls these days are more exposed to sex education classes and parents are also a lot more open when it comes to the birds and the bees.

Everyone farts

Excuse me?? Of course it is human to fart but KC girls don’t go around farting like truck drivers! As I said “Simple in Virtue, Steadfast in Duty”. But seriously, I have never ever heard any girl I was with fart and neither did I. Even till today, after 15 years of marriage, my hubby have not heard me fart. Don’t believe me? Ask him!! A lady always does it (fart) discreetly….

You Watch Mean Girls

I don’t even know what Mean Girls is? A movie? A TV show?

Back then, we WERE the MEAN girls!!

You had to play the male lead

True that someone had to do it when we had plays and such as we could not just ignore the male characters. Who would be Macbeth or Romeo? However, I never once was asked to play any male roles as I was too girly-girl.

Popular kids wore really short skirts

According to this article the nerds wore skirts below their knees and the cool girls wore short skirts way above the knee….

I have to say although that statement could be quite true in most all-girls school….My friends and I got that beat!! We were cooler in every sense of the word COOL. We made fashion statements. We made the school Principal seem fickle minded.

In the beginning, the school rule was to never have your uniforms above your knee. You should not wear socks that were too short. Do not puff out your uniforms over your belts…blah blah blah….. FINE! We wore our uniforms touching our knees, with our belts loose, and high socks. We made it so fashionable that the Principal had to bite her tongue making a statement saying that we could not do that…. So it was back to the short socks, tight belts that would puff our uniforms and a little above the knee uniforms. You think we bothered? Nope. We stuck to what we started….

We didn’t use make up but we sure sprayed on some expensive Calvin Klein perfume which used to drive our principal insane. Oh and we also carried designer bags!

Boy school guys are gems

We never had any exchange students from the boys schools but being in KC, we were damn lucky that St Patrick’s school was right across the street from us and Parkway Parade mall was nearby so we could hang out and meet boys there after school.

For me, the boy school guys were gems in my early years of Secondary school life. It was great when you had your boyfriend there waiting for you after school, etc etc. I’ve been through happy times and heartaches….. But it was all a learning journey. The journey that would mold me in to the person I am today. During my upper Secondary school days I discovered that I looked mature for my age and didn’t care much for the school boys. I started dating the deejay that worked at Parkway and moved on to a tattooed gangster who protected me like nobody’s business. It was all fun and games till I discovered the white guys….. that soon led me to my husband.

Now I have a daughter who is turning 13 years old in two weeks and studying at KC. God help me!

You used period to skip PE

Of course we took advantage of that and always used that as an excuse to skip PE. We were at the age where our boobies were growing and doing jumping jacks made us uncomfortable. But our PE teachers weren’t stupid…..she knew how many times a month we would lie about having our periods. So we just started skipping it altogether…. hiding in the toilets or just not going for the class.

So there you go, that was my time in an all-girls school. I never regretted it. I hope I made the right choice for my daughter too. I hope the time she has in KC, teaches her how to be street smart. I hope she experiences the good and the bad in order for her to grow. Whatever it is, I will be behind her to help her through this difficult time called “being a teenager”.