When I tell people I attended an all-girls school since age 4, I'm met with expressions of either confusion, shock, curiosity or some combination of the three. I get the same responses: Why? Was it horrible? But how did you meet boys?
Contrary to what many people immediately assume, judging from their looks of sympathy, I really enjoyed going to an all-girls school. Going to a single-sex school shaped me in many valuable ways and allowed me to build amazing friendships.
When it comes to single-sex education, I reject the idea that being in a single-sex environment makes one unable to interact with members of the opposite sex later in life. Contrary to this popular belief, everyone I knew at my school and other single-sex schools not only knew how to interact smoothly with members of the opposite sex, but they were also able to form actual friendships with those people outside of school time. Although the majority of my close friends were girls, I didn't get away from the outside world. Being in a single-sex environment also encouraged me to make more friends outside of school. These experiences gave me invaluable skills, many of which I have used in my first few weeks here at Stanford in making friends and building relationships.
Another common belief about all-girls schools in particular is the presence of unfriendly behavior between students. There are unavoidably conflicts in all schools at some points, but I never noticed a connection between single-sex schools and much disagreement. I would say that conflicts don't depend on whether you're at a single-sex or not, but rather on the personalities of the people you surround yourself with.
I will be forever grateful for the experiences I had and the relationships I formed in my all-girls school environment, but I'm equally so happy to be where I am now, experiencing new things everyday and growing more and more in the process.
