Myths: Boarding School Edition

BOARDING SCHOOL.

What are the first few thoughts that come rushing to your head when you hear those words? Drugs? Rich kids that act up so their parents sent them off. Strict uniforms and the mean girls in high-heels? Well, sorry to break it to you but boarding school is really not like the movies or the shows with exception to a very handful of a few. Many, Many, Many things go down in Boarding school yet there are a few myths I’m here to break down for yah while hitting you with a brick of weird facts. Stay tuned because this may get awkward.

Note: the following myths are gathered from real people.

1. Polo shirts and khakis

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• Yeahhhh… Lets just say NO. Although most boarding schools follow a dress code not everyone (believe it or not) are bound to the pristine crisp look of a tennis son at a yacht party on a Tuesday night.

2. I [think of] it like the movies; the whole fantasy of growing up and being independent but I feel like everyone is actually lonely as hell.

Image courtesy of Tenor

• I mean…. You’re not far fetched. It can be lonely at times but that’s what friends are for and there is a whole community of support if you ever are lonely and/or homesick. However, being away from home, on your own or maybe even with a sibling, is a rewarding experience where you get to make your own choices and decisions in life while learning to network in the earlier stages of being a teenager.

3. Prison system for the youth.

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• ​Not all Boarding Schools are placed in a scary, haunted, secret passageway having house with an over the top strict dorm parent like in House of Anubis. Honestly, it’s quite the “liberating” experience in a way. It focuses on individual growth while providing so much support to lean on: I think all grads from any boarding school could agree, there are just things we would never have understood and experienced if it was not for the individual growth boarding school allowed us to experience.

4. Everyone is friendly.

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• NO. But also YES. To say everyone is friendly is just wrong, I mean it is high-school. It’s just straight up how it is. You make friends with some and with others you don’t. Anywhere you go there are people who are friendly and who those who aren’t and boarding school is no different. ​​​

5. Food is Bad. People are MEAN.

• Food is alright. Definitely better than some schools and even colleges, but I won’t call out anyone just yet.
• People are people. There are “cliques” but nothing that purposely excludes other people: it’s usually dependent on the season and sports team tend to sit together after practices.

Image courtesy of Giphy

6. They don’t let you date people and you get in trouble for being in a relationship. 

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• I don’t want to say too much because this may be an article on it’s own but infact you are allowed to date as long as it’s appropriate & legal. Stay tuned for another article; Dating 101 as a Boarding Student.  

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