Did you know that having a robust life outside academics is one of the requirements for admission into the best universities in the world? A lot of Straight A students with zero life outside academics have been known to be turned down!
Why are hobbies and extra-curricula activities such an important part of life? Are there skills they equip you with – skills that academics just can’t give you? Let’s do some light learning.
1. Hobbies help build up your self-confidence
By finding an area of interest, you can build competence and skill. This leads to positive results and builds your confidence. This will in turn lead to more competence and skill. That’s the reason you can tell someone that a certain activity is “a walk in the park”, you are that confident because you have honed your skill in it.
2. A hobby helps you have a sense of his identity
Our likes and dislikes help define who we are as individuals. One of the main expectations of the adolescent period of life is to scope out your personal definition of who you are – more professionally known as developing your identity. Hobbies help by sending a signal, “I like doing this. This makes me feel good about myself. Therefore, this is a part of who I am.”
4. Hobbies help with your self-esteem
When you are involved in a hobby, you have easy access to something to praise about yourself. When you helped your team seal the victory in last week’s game, you are reminded that you were instrumental to the team’s success, and that reinforces your opinion about yourself, and your self-esteem.
And when you lose? You learn early in life how to deal with failure, how to process events, how to be resilient enough to go back and try to win the next game, how to work effectively in a team, and how to make things work for you even when the chips are down. These are called life skills, no teacher can teach it because they CANNOT be learnt in the classroom, they are learnt through our social interactions when we put ourselves out there.
Do you now understand why it’s not all about academics? Teens need to grow into well-rounded adults, and the learning ground for that are hobbies and other social activities. Further, hobbies do not necessarily have to be sports, they could be literary, art, music, photography, drama, dance, fashion, volunteering, games etc – but they MUST be activities that put you in a social situation to develop these life skills.
