Intern Musings: Finding extracurricular balance

With school just a few days away, schedules are suddenly becoming packed with both school and extracurriculars. While a seven-hour school day is a necessary part of every student’s day, extracurriculars become just that: extra. For some families, the stress of extracurriculars is simply too much — the cost of participation, the scheduling, the threats of burning out their students — all cultivate a weariness of extracurriculars.

Extracurriculars offer things the school can’t always teach. Activities from sports to clubs to theater or academic and creative competitions can help kids explore skills and talents and passion they may never have discovered.

They are also a good way to introduce students to how the real world works, with one example being competition. Competition is present almost everywhere. During high school, students compete for scholarships and places at college or in the military. After schooling is complete, many students will be fighting for jobs, promotions and many other things. Extracurriculars, specifically sports and competitive clubs, help build a foundation and teach kids how to deal with competition in a healthy way.

They are also a way for students to become more social. I met most of my friends through school activities. The sports or clubs connect interests and allow kids to create bonds over them.

For all the benefits and opportunities that extracurriculars offer, it is important to not let them consume a student’s life.

Too many times I have seen other high schoolers pushed to the point of hating the sport they loved just a few years earlier. It is important for young athletes to form a bond with their club or sport and to learn the fundamentals. While winning is a fun part of extracurriculars, it is important to not burn out a middle school kid by trying to make them the middle school world champion of fill-in-activity-here.

It is always important to remember that students should be students first. Many times, I have seen that students, parents and even coaches can forget that the students have an obligation to school, and that activities should not get in the way. I, myself, fall victim to allowing my activities to take over my focus all of the time. Yet perhaps there is a lesson lying within the all-too-common problem.

I also know that, sometimes, it feels just right to do as many activities as you can, saying “yes” to all of the clubs and sports that are available.

Being involved in everything stops you from being able to enjoy the things you really love to do. By all means, do what you love to do. If you love acting and science and football, don’t be afraid to join the theater club or the science fair or the football team or even all three at once, but remember to leave time to recover, get your schoolwork done, and enjoy your life.

Extracurriculars are supposed to be used to develop students in ways school cannot. They need to help teach students to be fair but competitive, devoted but mindful, and to be a decent human being in general. There is no magic formula that tells how many activities a student should do or how devoted the student should be to their extracurriculars. In the end, students need to follow their choices to learn the skills needed to live a healthy, successful, and happy life.

Jordan Allen has been a summer intern for the Pine Knot News this summer. The Cloquet senior will be wrapping up his intern experience soon so he can go back to school. He may, however, still write some freelance stories during the school year … when he has time.