“Get involved”, “Join a club”, “Getting involved is the best way to meet people”. These were the statements I and virtually every other high school freshman in the country were met with on orientation day. Yet beyond hearing these words of wisdom solely from my school administrators, my upperclassman friends encouraged me to join extracurriculars as well. So I did.

Fast forward to senior year, and my college applications were scattered with sports, leadership experiences, previous jobs, and what I thought every college would be looking for in the ever so advertised “holistic application”. Although I was incorrect, I will never regret my chaotic high school experience. I believe that experience is the best educator. Extracurricular activities give students the opportunity to develop their social skills, expand their network and explore their interests outside the walls of a classroom. While scientific knowledge of the circulation of the atmosphere and oceans may be meaningful to some, the hands-on experiences I got by being part of student organizations taught me lessons I was unable to learn during the school day.

A typical Tuesday midyear: Practice for the synchronized swimming club, Catalina, began at 5:45 a.m. By 7:05 I sat with soaking hair in a fashionable pair of sweatpants, at the front table leading our weekly Student Senate meetings. Second period I drove my tiny car packed with classmates off campus for a field trip for the Pay-It-Forward class. Third period, back on campus, I worked on my independent study for our Student Senate’s Save the Catwalk campaign. Making copies of papers, sending numerous emails, contacting school administrators, or anything else that needed to be done. I treated my lunchtime as an extension of my independent study, still running around the school. Then ate my lunch, a cold ham and cheese sandwich, an apple, and a packet of Cheez Its during AP Stats class the next period. As soon as school ended I drove my sister and her friends over to our church for the Regatta program, a weekly activity where I spent two hours hanging out with special needs students. Following this, I dropped my little sister off at home and then went back to the library to study until it closed promptly at 9 p.m. I went home, and ate whatever leftovers there were, or a frozen pizza, and didn’t go to sleep until 1 a.m., with all of my homework complete or when I was too frazzled to keep my eyes open anymore.

I was an extreme case. In hindsight I see that I was involved a little too much, and wish I got more than an average of 5 hours of sleep every night. Near the middle of senior year I did not see any results of what I was working on. Our Save the Catwalk fundraiser activities did not begin until February making all of the planning seem worthless because we had not brought in even a penny. My project for DECA, a business competition club, was 75 pages long, even after a long day of typing 15 pages, I barely made a dent in the entire project. To top it off, I was deferred from my top choice university.  But I kept going despite being physically and emotionally exhausted.

Senior year was a rollercoaster, but I felt stuck on the first hill going up, and up, and up, and up. Click, click, clank, click, clank, everything around me cried out as I fought to just get up this hill. All of the late nights and the early mornings with no visible results haunted me. I wondered if all of this work would be worth anything in the end. My anxiety built as the workload increased, and everyone else’s social lives seemed to be getting further and further away from my reality.

Finally at the top of the hill I sat. But just for a second. I looked out around me at how enriching every homecoming event, committee meeting, and competition had been. In April of 2017 I won a DECA national championship, our tennis team performed well in regionals, I received the student senate scholarship I so desperately wanted, and the Save the Catwalk campaign wrapped up with several presentations to classmates, school administrators, and a volunteer dinner. For a split second, I experienced the success that made the previous months of hard work completely worth it.

Then, as all rollercoasters do, I rolled down the hill. That moment in time could not last forever.

College began, and all of my accomplishments in high school meant nothing anymore. I would love to forget my time at Loyola University Chicago, if only I could. I hit a low point in my self-esteem and my confidence. I couldn’t find an on-campus job because I did not qualify for federal work study. There were very few clubs to join, none of which interested me because of their competitive nature. The girls on my floor were catty and rude, if they saw me struggling they rolled their eyes instead of offering kind words. I thrived in high school by running around constantly and always having a to do list. Being busy became a characteristic. For that semester in Chicago I aced my classes, but could not find activities outside of academics I wanted to be involved in. I was struggling to find my place like an adventurer stuck in a mundane location. I was not myself anymore.

I transferred to Barrett, the Honors College and ASU in my second college semester during Spring 2018. I joined the business club American Marketing Association as the vice-president of administration and the Barrett tour guide group Honors Devils and secured two jobs in the recruiting offices. I have begun my journey up the second hill of my rollercoaster. This one too has been exhausting and makes me question what I can handle. Free time is a rare occurrence. I stay up until one or two a.m. doing homework and sometimes feel like I am stretched way too thin.

But I am a thrill-seeker. I love the time that I put into my extracurriculars and the skills they provide to me. I now have knowledge on how to lead meetings, communicate with authorities, and plan events from my experiences with student government like the Save the Catwalk campaign when I directed the presentations, movie nights, and donation campaigns in the district’s 7 elementary schools. I firmly believe I would not have gotten into Barrett had I not had those extracurricular activities to discuss in a creative supplement, a five page addition to my application about how those experiences gave me a unique perspective. But beyond being accepted into the honors college, I love being able to converse with professionals of fields I want to pursue about what my involvement has meant to me. Though I am only one example, students can reap leadership skills, networking connections, and technical skills from extracurricular activities.

I understand that many students do not think this way. Others have contradicting points of wanting more time to relax and be social. They may feel that the weight of school warrants no time to add anything else to their plate. But I believe that being involved brings more benefits than they are foregoing otherwise. These extracurriculars can make a student more prepared for college and their future careers because they have acquired skills from an outside activity. Academics alone cannot teach a student how to be an adequate leader or follower, or work well in group settings. By joining extracurricular activities students are opening more future doors for themselves by the knowledge they will take away from their experiences.

I will never be able to adequately thank my high school administrators and teachers for pushing me to get involved in outside activities. My extracurricular involvement prepared me for so much more than just what I have learned in the classroom. Being part of various teams gives me something to be emotionally attached to, and seeing success come out of something I put hard work into provides such fulfillment. Through extracurricular activities, students can expand their network, have an opportunity to explore their interests, and learn time management skills. Those who challenge themselves by joining extracurricular activities will gain outside knowledge that can be seamlessly applied to their careers and everyday life.