Everyday within our lives we discover things that bring us joy and excitement. Sometimes it can become difficult to find opportunities to try something new, especially when you're in middle school. But one place many students can build new interests is their very own school. Schools often provide many extracurricular activities that often involve sports, literature, and leadership. However many of the students choose not to participate at all, and that often leads to becoming very unhealthy in various forms. Such as laziness and lack of motivation as well as a negative mindset. Which can lead to many mental health struggles in the future that also affects their working life and their families as well. Schools should require students to participate in at least one extra curricular activity as it is very beneficial in a way that makes them have much more active mindset, and educationally benefit them in the future, as well as build stronger social skills.

When someone thinks of being active the first thing they typically think of is being physically active. Though joining something can result in being physically active, there are other things like yearbook and student government that make someone active in another way. Such as an active mindset and that can improve motivation and reduce laziness too. Before when I personally wasn't very involved in anything I didn't have much motivation to join and start something new and I had a very lazy mindset as well; this went on for years. But after I joined student government and put myself out there I had so much more personal inspiration and it motivated me to want to join other things and do projects beneficial to my school and community. I even ended up joining a Girl Scout troop. So sometimes when we all need a little bit of encouragement to become a better version of ourselves it is a positive change to be required to join something and discover what our unknown interests are.

But sometimes those activities can also lead to learning so many new things that really broaden our mindset and benefit us educationally. When we broaden our mindset we have so much more creativity and become a lot more imaginative. Having that mindset while trying new and different things can even result in finding new passions like the arts which includes drawing, painting, music, cooking, and even more. That creativity applies during class time as well while writing essays, making presentations, and even just doing classwork or homework. Also activities that involve leadership like student government or yearbook involves a lot of public speaking more than often so it is can have a positive impact as well. For example when a situation like a presentation is coming up it can be very beneficial to your grades and self confidence to have that past history of public speaking. Even sports encourage not giving up and trying your best which really does set up that mindset in class as well. So having to join at least one extracurricular is not only beneficial to your education but to your over all future and when it comes to getting a job or continuously being participant for the benefit of community.

Having experience with working and interacting with people is very important as well. Learning how to work together with people is something necessary throughout a whole lifetime. Building those skills now really sets them in stone for the future. It leads to becoming more of a natural, strong leader which is very necessary throughout high school, college, and your future job, it also applies to what you do in your daily lives. This definitely does increase self confidence and when interacting with people and being presented in front of an audience you seem more approachable and reaching your goal can become much more easier. For example when moving to a completely new place one needs confidence and some sort of motivation to put them self forth to meet new people like your neighbors and people at your work/school. Therefore having those skills makes it much easier ti adjust to change and ca lead to a healthier lifestyle.

Although some do feel forced to join an extracurricular against their will and think of it as a waste of their time and they believe it should be optional. But those people are often lacking motivation and an active mindset. Especially since they have never developed any type of motivator or put them self out there to learn something new. I feel as if they should at least try something even if it slightly catches their attention and put effort to learn from it before they make the judgment that it isn't a good idea to require it. Schools should require students to participate in at least one extra curricular activity as it is very beneficial in a way that makes them have much more active mindset, and educationally benefit them in the future, as well as build stronger social skills. Students everywhere should try something new especially if it could change them for the better and they could ultimately be happier. It not only is beneficial to you personally but it affects the people around you and your mindset long term. If it can make you active and improve your confidence while also broadening your mindset and improving life skills isn't it worth a try?