Extracurricular activities. The words don’t exactly inspire, do they? They don’t quite make me want to get up and go looking for stuff to do outside my already busy school life. I know that your schedule is already jam-packed with all the necessities—the reading, writing, and arithmetic bits—but there is something to be said about the value of—ahem—non-school related endeavors. That sounds better, no? So with the limited space provided to me, below, I will venture into the land of spare time, where video games and parties reign, and make the argument that, yes, your time would be better filled making you better at a craft of your particular passion… that isn’t a video game.
What you could do
There are lots of things you could do, what, with the world at your doorstep. But the first thing that popped into my mind was sports simply because of the sheer variety of different athletics in which you could participate. Obviously, here in Calgary, there are some seasonal limitations; baseball shouldn’t be your first choice come October, and ski-jumping is a no-go in June. Personally, I did curling in the winter. I joined the Calgary Youth Curling Association (CYCA), and it was an absolute blast. Did it for three or four years. In the summers, I spent my time on the Track-and-Field team. Look up an athletic club, join a gym (my personal spare-time activity right now), or join a team. It’s the best thing you can do for your body.
However, if you aren’t of the physically inclined, you might want to try pursuing a more academic undertaking. These groups aren’t as readily available as sports are—for some reason, sports are incredibly well-organized and established in communities, but reading groups fall well-short of ‘organized.’ Maybe because readers tend to be more type B personalities, so it may take some research on your part to find a book club or writing club or insert-noun-here club. See what your school offers. Debate teams, legal studies, the yearbook club, and student council are all fantastic options. On a side note—cough—you should consider picking up an instrument. It’s tough to learn (my alto-saxophone was a good, but ultimately failed, idea), but the rewards are incredible for you. If you have discipline, I highly recommend learning an instrument and joining a band—there’s no place better to learn and muck about than in a band of your peers.
What you should do
On a practical note, and on one of personal experience, don’t make commitments to a group or club right away. If you enter into an arrangement with a club and you find yourself out of your depth, or if things weren’t what you expected, you will have a much harder time backing out. On the other hand, if you inform the club—politely—that you are “just checking things out,” they will be more accommodating to you, and you have the benefit of gracefully leaving without any broken hearts. So find out what club suits your needs and wants by dipping your toes in the water and go from there.
You should, additionally, look at the goals you have set out for your post-high school life. If you plan to go into nursing or want to be a creative writer, find a group that will help you accomplish those goals. The idea, here, is to give you a leg-up on some of your competition. Yes, your fellow students are your peers, but they are also your competition. I know, it’s not a nice world out there no matter how much you want things to be rainbows and sunshine—dog-eat-dog is an appropriate idiom in this case, I believe—so you would do well to expel the notion that your classmates in university are just colleagues. You will be competing against them in the open market, which brings me to my next point.
Why you should
As I mentioned above, the marketplace doesn’t care if two applicants were besties while studying engineering. Employers care about results, outcomes, experience. And the applicant who had the better results in university will get the job over the one that came second, pure and simple. And the applicant that works harder will most likely have better grades. Activities you do outside of a school setting that are related to your area of expertise will only help you achieve the results you need to find that job come graduation.
Additionally, you should expand your curricular activities because those activities will give your resume a nice upgrade… in more ways than one. First of all, you will have experience in your area of studies outside of the ivory tower of university, where you are protected and isolated like a little fawn. You have experience in the real world, and—trust me—that counts for a lot with employers. Why do you think every entry level job asks for 5+ years of experience? They want to see you out in the world, out in the workforce, as an active participant.
The second thing clubs give you is references for your resume. This one is big, but not because it is a resume booster. It is important because you will have met people in your clubs who have education and experience. You can learn from them, too, not just your professors or some dusty old textbook. My dad always says to me, “You can learn something from anybody, no matter who they are.” No matter if they are younger than you, no matter if they are older. No matter if you think they are an idiot. Everyone can teach you something. It’s all experience.
So there you have it. I know that we all value our spare time, and it’s hard to fit another task into our week. But I really think it is worth your while. Look at what is available to you, whether it be a sport or an academic pursuit. Get your toes wet. Then, find a couple people who know what the heck they are talking about and learn as much as you can.