High school has its ups and downs, and balancing your activities can be a student’s biggest challenge. It all depends on how you use your time at this point in your life.
For me, I have been dancing for 13 years and it was definitely a big change coming into high school and juggling my social, school and sports life. High school was a big eye-opener for how to get your work done and how to be able to get somewhere in life while having it still be fun.
Over the past three years, I have had to learn study skills, time management, and how to keep my motivation up. This year as a junior, I have had to work harder and prepare for my future, like college, and because of that I chose to step down from competing in dance to focus more on my academics and my social life.
Before this year, I was dancing every day, and that had a lot of strain on my mental health. I felt very burnt out with school and dance, causing me to be more tired and overworked. When I was dancing from 6 am til 9 pm, I wouldn’t have any time to do homework or get good sleep.
This year, I have been able to do more extracurriculars outside of dance. I have added flag football and was able to do student government and yearbook. Also, I have been able to have time to do my homework and get good sleep. With having more free time, I have had a lot of time for myself and been able to reflect on what I want to do with my life and who I want to surround myself with. With not doing dance as much, I have been able to hangout with people much more and have figured out who makes me happy and who doesn’t.
With all these changes over the past years, I have figured out that it’s important to find what makes you happy, and if something isn’t making you happy, find out what you can change about it. I also don’t want to live with regrets about not choosing the right thing for my future and living with the thought of, ‘what if I did this?’ For example, when flag football came up as a sport, I knew I was going to regret it if I didn’t take that opportunity. So, I signed up for it but I knew that I couldn’t do it with competition and how much time dance takes up after school, so I chose to make a change and surround myself with new people.
I think high school is a really big growing point for everyone to see what you like and dislike. It is also a good way to see what you want to change about yourself to make you happy and enjoy being a teenager. As I go through these changes and move forward with my life, I want to keep pushing myself to try new things and eliminate the things that aren’t bringing me happiness.
