You may feel drained having to learn new material throughout the day that you feel your head will burst from all the new information. At such times, all you want is to just cool off and do something fun and non-academic for a change.
So, how do you let off steam and recharge your batteries? An extracurricular activity might just be what you need! And it could be music, sports, painting, or other such activities that allow you unwind. Consider some of the benefits here:
1. It Can Help You To Shift Focus
If you are struggling with academics, an extracurricular activity could provide you the opportunity of having control over an aspect of your life, even as you wait for the benefits of extra help or tutoring in your academics. If you are the artistic type who likes crafts, painting, photography, or gardening, it will provide you with that quiet time to work with your hands or connect with nature.
2. It Can Help You Keep Fit
Health is wealth is a popular saying. By engaging in some form of extracurricular physical activity, not only will you get much enjoyment doing what you love, you also get to burn off calories, put your heart to good work, even as you keep your body fit, toned, and healthy!
3. There’s Also the Benefit Of Social Interaction
While you get this in school no doubt, extracurricular activity provides this on a more personal level as you meet people who share very similar interests with you! Tell me, how does it feel when you find someone with whom you can discuss something that’s mutually important to you both? Don’t you just grow closer and closer to them? Now imagine not one, but perhaps 10 or 20 depending on the size of the club!
4. You Also Learn Civility, Respect and Responsibility
Many extracurricular activities will provide you with the opportunity to step up and become a leader. From there, you learn how to work with others and cooperate with them to achieve goals, you also come to see how different from you other people are and why you should respect them nonetheless, and also how to be an effective manager of time as you juggle this with your school work.
If you learn these lessons, you will gradually see yourself becoming more and more responsible, and better equipped to take on life’s challenges as you grow into adulthood with its many demands.
5. It Looks Good On Job Applications and Scholarships
There are many opportunities open to young people, and which often looks for extracurricular activity in applicants. These organisations believe that someone who has been committed to an activity by choice will have developed additional skills that lead to success which cannot be taught in the classroom, and that they are more likely to perform well.
All of the above reasons listed come together to help develop someone who has even more skills for success than someone who earned excellent grades but did not do extra activities.
For you, which shall it be?
This article was adapted from verywell.com