By Sofie Chan
Staff Writer
Color-coded blocks fill the calendars on my classmates’ phones—looking back at my own, the gaping spaces that greet me tell me that I’m not doing enough.
When my peers boast about the number of extracurriculars they are in, I feel pressured to be like them and sideline my passions for things that might put me ahead. The sprint for success is so prevalent among my classmates that people who don’t have many extracurriculars seem to be lagging behind or unambitious simply because they aren’t as busy.
The idea that busyness equates to success actively contributes to the negative evolution of our school’s club culture, which is quickly becoming a toxic rat-race to see who can collect the most curricular activities.
Take our school’s National Honors Society as an example. The requirements for membership include having a 3.4 GPA minimum and various curricular activities. Applicants have to fill out a brag sheet listing their student, club and community involvements to fulfill the requirements of good scholarship, service, leadership and character. All of these factors are used to determine whether a student is outstanding enough to be honored as an NHS member.
While promoting a wide range of extracurriculars can create well-rounded students who display outstanding traits, we should keep in mind that some students only join groups to check off a box on their resume.
From experience, many people that I have worked with don’t pull their weight when it comes to maintaining a club, service group or team. The idea of being a cabinet officer or team member is fun on the outside, but the dedication and communication required to work in a team can sometimes be difficult to balance. Piling schoolwork, clubs, sports and internships on top of each other leads some to slack off on things they deem to be lower priority, making their extracurriculars more quantity-based than quality.
In addition, students who aren’t able to join lots of extracurricular activities due to home, work or mental health reasons are also put at a disadvantage. Just because one person can handle seven clubs doesn’t mean that everyone can.
With the current extracurricular culture, many students have very little time to unwind. Chronic exposure to cortisol, the stress hormone, doesn’t only affect mental health but can damage entire body systems. According to Healthline, cortisol production contributes to the risk of heart disease due to the increase in blood pressure, which damages arteries and could lead to future heart attacks. Busier students also tend to not get enough sleep, which is detrimental to highschoolers because they are still developing. These unhealthy consequences reflect the toxicity of the rat-race students go through.
On the flip side, people with less extracurriculars have more time to invest in them. My two activities, K-Pop Dance Team and Rampage, take up large amounts of my time. Balancing leadership and dance practices with article assignments gives me the same management skills that someone else with more extracurriculars could learn, but I have more time to develop them.
Both my activities helped me break out of my shell and greatly improved my mental health because I found community. Contrary to belief, having less to do does not detract from work ethic. In fact, building bonds and having fun with classmates who share the same interests with me is just as valuable and important to my success as a person, and it motivates me to do more.
Instead of competing in the 100-meter sprint for success, we should acknowledge the work that we put into what we have now and continue to support each other. Getting ahead doesn’t have to come from hoarding extracurriculars—building community and having time for fun can ultimately make you a more accomplished person. Slow down, take a step back and realize that extracurriculars aren’t the be-all-end-all of high school.