What Catholic School Taught Me About Being a Girl—and a Woman

I spent years in Catholic schools, including an all-girls high school, learning what it meant to be a girl.

Looking back now, I realize I was also learning—quietly, and often without knowing it—what it might mean to become a woman.

One of the things that stands out most is something I didn’t question at the time.
There was no stigma attached to speaking up.
We were expected to have thoughts. To share them. To engage.
And in that environment, something subtle but important happened—we learned that our voices mattered.
A Different Kind of Space
Without the usual social competition that can come with co-ed spaces, relationships felt… different.
Stronger, in some ways.
Not perfect—there were still mean girls, of course. But more often than not, that came down to ordinary pettiness, not the kind of constant comparison that can shape how girls see themselves.
There was space to simply be—to think, to learn, to grow.

And it wasn’t just the teachers who shaped that experience.
Some of the women I went to school with are still part of my life today.
We’ve stayed in touch over the years, and in different ways, they continue to inspire me, challenge me, and remind me of the kind of women we were being encouraged to become—even back then.
There’s something meaningful about relationships that grow over time.
Not perfect. Not constant. But steady.
And I’m grateful for that.