1. Having a strict dress code.
And the weekly measuring of the skirts.
And it had to be tucked in. Always tucked in.
2. If you're a girl, you never left home without a good pair of biker shorts on under your uniform.
3. And if you were a boy, you were always being given a hard time about your haircut.
4. The long white socks always slid down to your ankles.
5. Prayers every morning.
6. And at least one mass per month.
7. (And going to that mass piss drunk.)
8. The best thing was the flavor of the host. Mmmmm, soft bread.
9. You made up rumors about a relationship between a nun and one of the priests because there was no romance between students to gossip about.
10. Your confirmation was fun because it was just a party with hundreds of your friends from school.
11. You know all the songs that exist in any variable of the mass.
12. And you memorized (maybe still have memorized) really long prayers in their entirety.
13. If you had a lot of musical talent, you could be in the choir.
14. Ash Wednesday was an important day because they would mark your forehead with a cross.
15. If you went to a co-ed school, phrases like "make room for the Holy Spirit" were part of the collective vocabulary.
16. And if you went to an all girls or all boys school, the mere smell of someone of the opposite sex sent you into the hormonal stratosphere.
17. You took classes on morals and religion every year of your life...
18. ...but you had no idea how women get pregnant.
19. You always feel just a bit of guilt (and also a little bit of fear) when doing "dirty" things because you think God is watching you.
20. Nothing could cause more panic than teen pregnancy.
21. You were wary of gothic styles because you didn't know if it was right to use crosses as a fashion statement.
22. And maybe, just maybe, the moment you graduated, you announced to your family and friends that you were an atheist.
This post was translated from Spanish.