When I was a junior and senior in high school going on college tours they always said that they wanted to see that you did so many activities that they questioned how you were still alive.
That’s what I did.
Throughout my four years of high school, I was a part of at least seven different clubs, sports, and other extracurricular activities on top of having a job. Even with such a busy life, I managed to still have a social life and keep my grades up. Honestly, if it weren’t for all of these activities, I wouldn’t be anywhere close to the person I am today.
Doing all of these activities helped me learn what I liked to do, what I didn’t like to do, and what I want to do for the rest of my life. Being so busy in high school also taught me incredible time management skills. I knew that if I had work until 4:30 p.m. and then band at 6:00 p.m. that I had to use that hour and a half of free time wisely if I was to be able to get all of my homework done and eat.
When I first got to U.N.H., I wanted to continue to do the same activities that I did in high school, but I found that many of the activities I was interested in happened at the same time. I figured that not being in as many activities would be fine, because I mean then I’d have more time to focus on school work, right?
Instead I found that my time management skills suffered immensely because I had too much free time. Instead of having a free hour, I now had a free day. This lead me to believe that I had more time to do things later and I spent more time watching Netflix or reading. After a few weeks struggling to manage my time, I realized that I needed to take up more of my time in order to regain my time management skills. Since I couldn’t do the same things I did in high school, I decided to try new things, and so far, I’m really enjoying them.
Now that I am a part of all of these different activities, I am finding my time management skills to be much better, and I’m having more fun and making more friends.
I think being a part of so many various clubs is not only beneficial to me, but could be beneficial to any college student. When you go off to college, you’re more often than not in a new place with people you don’t know, and quite honestly, you have no friends. How are you supposed to make new friends if all you ever do is sit in your dorm doing homework or watching Netflix? If for nothing else, join a club or two just so you can make new friends!
While I think making new friends is definitely one of the most important reasons to join a new activity, joining a new activity can help you learn new things as well. It doesn’t matter if the activity you join is related to a topic you’ve known all your life or if it’s completely new to you, you will always learn new things. I learn new things every week in marching band even though the activity itself is not new to me, and I learn new things every day when I ref sports because I’ve never done that before.
Being able to adapt to learn how to do something a new way or even just to do a new thing in general is a skill that will be immensely important later in life in your job or career. If your boss wants you to give an interview, but you’ve never interviewed before, you’re going to have to be okay with trying it out and learning how to do it. If your boss wants you to do a major part of your job differently, you need to respect them and try the new way.
While I know not everyone has the time to dedicate to a bunch of random activities, it’s better to at least join one club or activity during college. If you don’t, you’re most likely going to wind up alone in your dorm watching sad movies on Netflix, and who really wants that?
