So much to learn

For Grades 9 and 10, I attended an all-girls high school. I never truly felt as if I belonged. We wore uniforms. I chose to take Latin instead of home economics, which would have been more beneficial in my life, but Latin it was.

I caught the city transit bus because the school was out of my neighbourhood for the first time. And my parents paid a fee for me to attend this school. Mom or Dad must have worked harder, and some of my siblings must have done without some things they wanted so that there was extra money for me to attend this high school.

Way back then, we didn’t have backpacks. We carried our books and binders in our arms. The school used our mathematics and French books for grades 9 and 10. I always put those two books on top of my homework pile while I rode the bus, just in case someone else recognized the books and perhaps assumed I was actually in Grade 10 vs Grade 9.

During Grade 10, we learned that the Provincial Education Department would open a co-ed Catholic high school in my neighbourhood. I jumped ship for Grades 11 and 12. But that is my next memory.