Student athletes run back and forth on a bright green field, kicking a black and white soccer ball between each other's feet; the sun is hazing and glaring down at the students with aggression. A student retrieves the ball and kicks it with might into the soccer net, scoring a winning point for her team. Yelling and shouting with joy, the team crowds around and parades in victory. With the slight push of a finger, a bystanding student encapsulates the entity of empowerment with a single picture; a picture of which will be published into the school's yearbook. Partaking in extracurricular activities will give students a firsthand experience of learning from their mistakes, meeting new people, and it will open more opportunities for students in the future.

Making mistakes is a vital part of life-whether it be alone or with others. Without making mistakes, people wouldn't know how to expand their mind and grow into better people. While solving those mistakes can be solved on your own, sometimes you need assistance along the way. Partaking in extracurricular activities allows students to work together on solving problems and learning from mistakes. A mere misspelling found while revising the school's yearbook or throwing a basketball an inch too far to the left are both examples of problems that can be expanded upon by other members within the extracurricular activity. Being the one having your problem revised over is essential for staying grounded; being the one revising over a problem is essential with understanding compassion for others.

Participating extracurricular activities invites more people into your life: teachers, peers, parents, and an abundance of others. Meeting new people applies complexity within your ideologies and vocabulary; as well as it builds partnership, respect, and necessary conversation skills. When you speak to a peer's parent, you don't speak to them like they're a friend. You demonstrate respect for them and present a different form of speech. Doing this more often contributes to the ease of handling opportunities in the future: job interviews, writing college essays, and problem solving. Meeting new people also invites more people with opposing ideas into your life, whether it be as simple as how to start an essay or as intense as politics.

While being involved in extracurricular activities has several benefits, many students don't have the time to participate even if they wanted to. Many of the recommended or popular extracurriculars put heavy emphasis on "outside-of-school-hours" events, such as meetings or sports practice. In America, many parents are working late nights and tight shifts that give low pay just to provide for their children-not even thinking of themselves. This restricts the time necessary for students to participate in those specific events, making it severely unfair to those students. This is a problem that needs a resolution; children are suffering because of it.

With the skills of learning from mistakes and meeting new people, participating in extracurriculars contributes to the many opportunities that extend into your adulthood. For example, what extracurricular activities you do in school currently contributes to what college you get enrolled into; which contributes to the likelihood of getting the job you want; which then contributes to how the rest of your life will pan out. Job interviews, writing college essays, and problem solving are all skills that can be built upon. The things that you do now may seem minuscule, but it often trails into your future. Your actions have immense impacts that you may not even notice until it's far into the future.

Through partaking in extracurricular activities, you are given an outlet to showcase your talent and be praised upon it, express your creativity with freedom, attend competitions and events you would have never otherwise thought was possible to attend. Those are some reasons that makes participation in extracurricular activities brilliant. Although, I believe that the beauty of vigorously learning from your mistakes, meeting new people who have their own ideologies, and opening up to more opportunities for your future are the main reasons why it's important to partake in extracurricular activities.