1. Your classmates know every embarrassing story there is to know about you.
You consider yourself fashion-forward, but you totally own the fact that you wore pigtails until ninth grade.
2. If your school has a famous alumna, it is instantly your fun fact.
Everyone I’ve ever gone to camp with knows that Lindsay Lohan went to my high school. Unfortunately, so did the New Jersey “Tan Mom,” but I would never tell you that. Side note: I still managed to come out okay.
3. Your teacher has an impression of you before you step foot in her classroom because she taught your siblings, too.
You have to make a strong first impression so she understands you’re nothing like your troublemaker brother.
4. If you’re taking AP classes, the same people are in all of them.
There’s no escaping the kid who asks you to borrow a pencil in every class. Seriously, how did you lose that pencil in the last two periods?
5. You’re in like seven clubs because they desperately need more people.
You’re the president of the French Club and your advisor also leads Locks of Love and SADD, so you were guilted into joining those too.
6. There’s a strong possibility you’ll see one of your teachers while you’re at the grocery store with your mom.
Small school often equals small town. You’ll probably see your soccer coach too, because, you know, they’re married to each other.
7. Your school only is known for one sport.
There just aren’t enough coordinated people to excel in basketball, volleyball and swimming in the same season.
8. And if you’re a good athlete, you play a sport every season.
Your soccer coach is also the lacrosse coach and he knows you’re a fast runner, so you will play lacrosse and you will like it!
9. Instead of competing against a rando for the lead in the school play, you’re up against your biology lab partner or your ex’s new girlfriend.
Good thing you are the queen of ~diffusing tension~.
10. Gossip spreads even faster than germs.
Everyone knows that you failed your road test before you even make it back to campus.
11. Speaking of germs, flu season is the worst.
If you’re one of the few who managed to make it out unscathed, there’s no point in coming to class — you’ll be the only student.
12. You don’t even need to text your friends during class because you’ll talk to them in the hallway between periods.
Your next class is literally right next door, so you can spend those five minutes with your BFF dissecting what the look Tyler gave you means.
13. Your ex is also your best friend’s ex and your brother’s ex’s little brother.
It’s fine. Don’t make it weird.
14. You could be on first name basis with your teachers because they know your sister and your mom and oh, yeah, you babysit their kids.
There’s nothing like chilling with your English teacher on a Friday night.
15. You’re an expert people pleaser.
It’s no fun holding a grudge against kids that you have to spend all of your time with. Except that guy who reminds the teacher she forgot to assign homework. Him you hate.
16. You’re friends with people in grades above and below you.
Instead of making fun of the freshmen, you’re totally cool with them.
17. When a new student transfers in, their life story is spread around the school in an instant.
Is that the smell of fresh meat?
18. You don’t know the meaning of a mutual acquaintance.
There are none of those, “Oh my gosh, you take French? Do you know Suzannah? I love her” moments, because duh you know her. She’s your friend too.
19. You resolve fights with your friends faster because you’re forced into seeing them.
It’s hard staying mad at someone when you sit next to them in every class.
20. College decision time is high-stakes because you know everyone’s top choice, safety school, and back-up plan.
Rejection letters are even harder when everyone knows you didn’t get into your dream-school-since-freshman-year.
21. Senior pranks come with major consequences.
In a bigger school, it would be harder to find the culprit, but when the principal recognizes the back of every student’s head, there’s a lot more risk involved in unleashing, say, 100 lab rats in the teachers’ lounge. You know, just for example.
22. The last day of school is a race to get everyone’s signature in your yearbook.
When your high school is small enough to get every classmate’s “HAGS” sign-off, you just have to collect them all.
23. You’ve known the kid sitting next to you at graduation since you were in pre-school.
You’ve seen each other in diapers and in braces, and you’re trying to un-see the sweat that’s dripping down his temples because who decided that heavy polyester graduation gowns were a good idea?
24. It’s hard to take anyone’s graduation speech seriously.
You understand that Mary is “so grownup” now and ready to take on the world, but knowing every detail about that time that she wet her pants at the Halloween haunted house makes it hard to focus her motivational speech.
25. Going to a big university is a shocking transition.
Who is this person and why don’t you know their life story?
26. But you wouldn’t trade your small high school for the world.
You know that the people who still loved you when you went through your blue eyeshadow phase are your best friends for life.
From: Seventeen
Originally appeared on Cosmopolitan.com