Extracurricular or Brushed Under the Rug? by Chrystina

Extracurricular or Brushed Under the Rug? by Chrystina - September 2019 Scholarship Essay

High school is a tough time. It varies from person to person, truly no two people share the exact same high school experience. But something that many high schoolers share is that feeling of dread and unpreparedness as they enter what many adults like to refer to as 'The Real World'. Some argue that the sole purpose of high school is to prepare you for what lies beyond, but many would argue against that.
If given the opportunity, an extracurricular activity I would add would be a life skills club. A place where one could go to get help dealing with life itself. Whether it be help with budgeting, learning to sew a broken pair of pants back together, meal planning that involves food that doesn't come in a branded box or simply just talking with someone and learning how to cope with what's to come.
When one thinks of these skills, you tend to think of them all separately and can categorize them into smaller sections such as foods class or going to therapy. And while you would be correct in thinking that, not everyone has access to such things, for whatever reason. The lack of teaching life skills in high school negatively affects at least 25% of the graduating class, regardless of the year. A majority of students don't know what to do next. They are told it is expected of them to go to a post- secondary form of education, whether that be a University or a trade school, and if not school, they are thrown into the workforce, where finding a job has become difficult. Jobs require experience, but you can't get experience if you don't have a job. So what next?
I feel as though a Life Skills club would provide guidance to everyone, whether it be a student with a full ride to Harvard who might thrive academically but doesn't know how to cook anything other than instant ramen and boxed mac and cheese or a teen mother who doesn't know what to do moving forward into college with the new addition to her family. I firmly believe that had I had this club to attend, I would feel a lot better about knowing that the really real world is harder than it seems.