Schools everywhere offer extracurricular activities for their students. The students who don’t participate typically go home and play video games or mindlessly scroll on their phone until 1:00 in the morning. Meanwhile, the people involved in school activities make more friends, have superior mental and physical health and get into good colleges. 

When you decide to join a sport, the school band, a book club or any school-run extracurricular, you form relationships with the people involved. Most of these groups tend to meet throughout the week, and the people involved get to know each other, which leads to making new friends. These are bonds that you won’t create without taking some time out of your day to be a part of groups. Making friends is great, but improving your health is even better. 

Research has shown that sports help reduce your risk of heart disease, lower your cholesterol levels, improve your immune system and make your bones stronger. These things may not seem important now, but as you grow older and your health becomes crucial, having done a sport will benefit you greatly. Your mental health also improves when you get to spend time doing something you enjoy after sitting in stressful classes for over six hours. You can use activities as an escape from school and life for at least an hour everyday.

Along with your health being important in the future, your education will also benefit you in the long haul. Most high school students have a dream college they hope to attend. While grades and test scores are a key part of being accepted into colleges, involvement in extracurricular activities is looked at by admissions offices when applying to schools. If you are involved in a lot of school activities, you will look better and be considered over someone who isn’t involved in anything. Clubs and sports make you look more unique, show you have leadership skills and demonstrate your willingness to help make the school and community better. You could even receive scholarships depending on the extracurricular you are involved in.

With all the benefits of extracurriculars in mind, when the time for activity sign-ups comes around, consider joining one. Scrolling for hours or playing your favorite video game is very inviting, but it doesn’t help you now and won’t help you in the future.