Sports and extracurricular activities are very common in today's schools, yet in recent years the number of students who participate in these has diminished. One of the few top causes are, technology, lack of drive, and higher levels of stress. Therefore I feel, that students should be required to participate in at least one extracurricular activity to, aid in finding peers with similar interest, be stress beneficial, and drive students with the enticement of competition.

First and foremost, this will aid in finding peers with similar interest because, we are more often than not, on social media or are on our phones more intrigued in what somebody else is doing, or where they are going than what we are doing with their own lives. A prime example of this, is that people won't sign up for something they don't like. So people in chess club most likely want to be there, that is something everyone there has in common. Plus if we participate in multiple clubs or activities and the same people are in them to, they probably have similar interest that could lead to companionship. With this added benefit of friendship it opens a whole new door of opportunities for us. It means that we can have someone there for support or someone to go hangout with in the future. It can also drive us to take more risk in our life and open us to new opportunities like a new food or activity that we may enjoy.

Secondly, a lot of students, especially in late middle to high school, are under a exponential amount of stress. This can cause them to do are think about harmful or life threatening activities to them or others. To prevent this, it would be wise for us to be in a place where we can express ourselves and let off some steam. Extracurricular activities fulfill this need for relief in our lives, and A few of the ways it does this is exposure to the community by, travel, community service, or self influence in the community. Another benefit is time management, many students, my self included, struggle with time management because we are constantly over run by massive a amount of knowledge from the day or week, so that leads us to give to much or little time to self benefit. This leads to higher levels of stress when we don't have time to do anything on the spot. I have first hand experience with this where just the other day I came home after a long and dreadful day where I was to tired to do anything so I simply fell asleep even though I had plans to go with my friends that evening, but was famished of energy from school.

Lastly, it opens up a window of opportunity when it comes to competition. As human beings we strive to be the best in life. We want to have, the style, the smarts, and the popularity in life. With that said, clubs and sports allow for that through competition. For some they get to express their leadership skills, for others they get to home in on their teamwork skills and on the very rare occasion it teaches some to be humble with loss. Competition gives a sense of unity with each other because everyone is working toward the same goal, winning, and it can also build confidence though leadership. A good example is a sport coach, in some sports one of the players is actually the coach, and having that job is often a way to build confidence because it gives a sense of power to them. Even losing can help them, for some they feel that winning is the only thing in life so they get all worked up about it. So when they lose and understand that its not a bad thing. It helps them learn not to be so stressed about winning, and I used to be that way, but because I learned that I can lose and it won't kill me, I have enjoyed life more.

In conclusion, I feel that having us participate in a extracurricular activity is a highly beneficial idea that will allow for us to enjoy life with a higher acceptance. It will let us make more friends with similar interest, allow for us to be less stressed in life, and give us a higher sense of confidence in life. All of this leads to the fact of enjoying life to the fullest and sharing that with others instead of being secluded and stressed in life which is where a lot of the student population is right now in comparison to a couple of decades ago.