Now. I have only attended Saint Mary’s for two years and in those two years I would have never believed that I could already imagine my life without this school and the girls I have met. I almost faint with jealously when my upperclassmen friends show off their Saint Mary’s graduate ring as if they are showing me a huge diamond engagement ring.
Being a third generation “Smick Chick” I cannot wait for the day to come when I can match my mother and grandmother’s rings and gloat about my days at Saint Mary’s like they do. My grandmother, in fact, just celebrated her 50th anniversary of graduating from Saint Mary’s.
I will never get tired of hearing my grandmother tell me about Saint Mary’s at the time when the nuns ran the school, but never stopped my grandma and her friends from having fun. I promise, every friend of my moms that I have met has been a Saint Mary’s girl. They really all have stuck together years since graduation, something that I hope for when I graduate Saint Mary’s in a couple years.
I always find it funny when people from back home ask me if there are any sororities at Saint Mary’s. Of course, I say EMX jokingly but they never get it. In reality, Saint Mary’s is like one big sorority. Once a Smick Chick always a Smick Chick, even when some of the girls transfer over to Notre Dame or another school, they are still a Saint Mary’s Belle first because of the bonds we have made together.
We have all seen each other at our worst, for God’s sake, Saturday morning brunch after a long Friday night of poor decisions shows dramatically on all of us when we strut down the DH in our pajamas and still have a full face of makeup on.
When we are out and happen to come across another SMC girl we haven’t met before at a party, you know we immediately take her under our wings, no Smick left behind right?
Going to an all girls’ school, I barely notice the absence of a male presence. Granted, when we see a boy on campus or in the gym we immediately turn our attention towards them because hey, it’s out of place for the daily life on campus for us.
I love Saint Mary’s. We may not always be dressed to impressed or take pictures with big Zeta signs, but we understand the importance to always look after your sisters even years after graduation like my mom and grandma. Saint Mary’s is a sisterhood no sorority can beat and I have never been more proud of who I am as a Saint Mary’s belle. #gobelles
Photos provided by the author