"Mom," Generic_Name whimpered sadly. "Why is it so hard to make friends in school?" Her mother moves slowly towards the edge of her daughters bed and grabs her hand. "Now sweetie," her mother says comfortingly. "I'm sure if you tried hard enough you could make friends with someone." Crying softly Generic_Name turns toward her mother and says angrily, "It's not that easy mom! I don't have anything to talk about with these people. We don't even like the same things!" sighing her mother pulls her in for a hug, "oh honey, I'm so sorry. I had no idea." Generic_Name's mother can't do anything but rock her sobbing child as she cries .

This is a sad reality for many kids, throughout all stages of schooling, they have difficulties making friends and often end up feeling isolated and lonely. This problem can be easily solved by school principals requiring students participate in at least one extracurricular activity like a club or a sport. These extracurricular activities would help encourage students to be more social with their peers, pursue a passion or hobby, and give each other opportunities to learn more about themselves while expressing their personal interests and talents.

The first reason schools should make extracurricular activities a requirement is because they would encourage students to be more social with their peers. As a student with social anxiety I know how difficult it can be to try and talk to people and make friends, but in my experience i've noticed that clubs and sports give students more confidence in themselves. An extracurricular activity, whether it be a sport or a club, is an effective and easy way for a student to put them self out there with people who share their interests. For example when I first started school it was hard for me to talk to people and I didn't have many friends, then one day my language arts teacher encouraged me to try out for our school track team. I was skeptical, but decided to give it a chance, and it ended up being one of the smartest decisions I had made that year. After making the team I steadily came more and more out of my shell with the motivation of my teammates. I built strong friendships with many of the girls on my team solely because of the interest that bonded us together, our love for running. Joining track made me more confident in myself, and taught me how to make and maintain unbreakable friendships.

My second piece of reasoning as to why schools should require extracurricular activities, is because they would urge students to try new things and become interested in different hobbies. During the years students are in school, their hobbies are constantly evolving at a rapid pace, and they often become interested in things they had never acknowledged before. This example is true to many people, including myself. After track season had ended I decided I wanted to join an after school club, but none of the options really caught my eye. After searching for awhile a friend from the track team asked if I would be interested in joining our school robotics club as her teammate. As I had no other options that jumped out to me, I decided to try joining. Since joining the club in my sixth grade year I've developed a passion for engineering and computer programming that I never would have imagined developing otherwise. Taking that one chance to join the club has turned my previous skills and new ideas into a passion I doubt I'll ever lose.

The final reason that extracurricular activities should be required is that being in a club or sport would assist students in discovering more about themselves. In many cases people find out new things about themselves while participating in a club. It could be simple things such as unknown talents, or as complicated as realizing their social position on a team. When I first joined robotics in my sixth grade year, I was what you would describe as a follower. But when our team captain was out because of a concussion and my team was falling apart, we found out that I was, as described by my coach, "A natural born leader." Even being the unsociable person I am, I was able to lead my team with no assistance for three weeks, with a strength I wasn't sure I had. After this discovery I was promoted by my coach to be a team captain. For the last three years I have been the captain of my team, and as this is my final year considering I'm an eighth grader, my coach decided to test my skills. The past four months I have been captain and supervisor of three different teams by his order. I realize as I look back I never would have learned this about myself without joining robotics club.

"MOM!" Elise shouts excitedly as she rushes through the front door, "WE WON!" from her place in the kitchen her mother lets out a whoop of surprise before running to join her daughter in the living room. Surrounded by her teammates Elise holds the 1st place trophy up proudly as she laughs. The house is filled with the joyous laughter of Elise and her friends from the soccer club. As the girls chat between themselves Elise's mother looks on with a smile, proud of her daughter for finding friends that made her happy. Making eye contact with Elise she shouts, "All right, Group picture!" Lining up with large smiles on their faces and arms around each other, the girls look into the camera with happiness evident on their faces. The snap of the camera ensures this memory will always have a special place in Elise's heart.

Without having joined an extracurricular activity Elise would never have had the opportunity to make the bonds and friendships she did. Being in a club or sport helps encourage students to be more social with their peers, pursue new hobbies, and give each other opportunities to learn more about themselves and express their interests. Reasons such as these are why I agree that principles at all schools should make the decision requiring students to participate in an extracurricular activity.