Extracurricular Activities in High School by Haylee

Extracurricular Activities in High School by Haylee - October 2015 Scholarship Essay

In today’s society, many people think more is better. What most people do not think of is all of the things that comes along with all the things an individual can have. In fact, the more one has, the more one gets, but what else are they getting? That all depends on the individual. More things could easily cause a busy schedule, leaving no time to do things in which actually interest that student, more stress from the pressure have maintaining everything to the way it “should be” and lastly, it can also cause narrow-mindedness. With high school students already worrying to maintain grades, friendships, and ___, extracurricular activities should not be required for high school graduation, but it should still be encouraged.
Although extracurricular activities have numerous amounts of good qualities, some students just simply are not interested in them. In fact, being a high school senior, many students involved in extracurricular activities are doing them because their parents make them or to spend time with their friends. They are not in that sport or organization because of what it stands for, but rather to spend time with their friends. As these students have involved themselves in activities they actually wished they were not, they sit back to do something for other people rather than please their own happiness. Extracurricular activities do involve students, but is it actually what the student wants to do?
Along with high school, there comes the pressures of maintaining grades, relationships with friends and family, and fitting in. Students attend school for eight hours a day. After school, students have roughly two to three hours of homework each night. And on top of that one to two hours will be spent at the dinner table. Anywhere from eleven to thirteen hours of the day is already taken up with normal daily routines. Add the suggested sleep amount, which is eight hours a night, to that and the day is nearly taken up. Just like any individual, not just students, everyone needs his or her own down time to relax, enjoy himself or herself, and to take in life. If extracurricular activities are adjusted into a student’s schedule, there would be no time for the student’s self. Practices are averaged out to be about two or three hours each, games take about five hours overall, which cuts into time from either school work, friends and family, or being able to do things to actually fit in at school. Extracurricular activities takes time away from students that is needed to keep up on grades, relationships with others, and the ability to fit in.
Not only can extracurricular activities keep students away from doing what he or she wishes to actually do and takes time away from him or her, but it also can lead to narrow-mindedness. Because the student feels the need to stay involved, he or she may lose focus on what they actually want to do because he or she lets others make their decisions. This occurs more often than it is actually realized. It because a habit of the student’s to keep following the path set for him or her while being made by someone else. The student’s time is already taken up; therefore, the student’s mind is already involved with the thoughts from others. Student’s become narrow-minded through extracurricular activities.
Although high school extracurricular activities connect students together, they leave no time for other, or actual interests, relationships with friends and family, and lead to narrow-minds. Students are already busy with the stress of good grades, keeping relationships with friends and family, and fitting it, how are they expected to spend time on themselves and think for themselves? Extracurricular activities have potential to help students excel, but they also take away from students. They should be highly encouraged, but in no way required in order to graduate because it may just add too much to student’s plates. The more someone has is not always better.