Balancing Work, School & Activities
by Riley Lawrence
When most people think of a high school student’s schedule, they usually think that they are done with their days at 3:20. But this is not the case, as many of our students have work or extracurricular activities after school that can consume most of their remaining time in the day.
Students who play sports in season have after-school practices that can last for hours. After these practices, most of these students go home and finish their homework and eat. By the time students are finished with their work and eating, it can sometimes be late in the night.
“I feel like trying to balance all of my stuff is hard because you have to like go to practice and then, when I get home, have to get all of my homework done and my chores and still go to bed at a decent time,” sophomore Briggs Drahota, a football, basketball, and track athlete, stated.
On the other hand, students who have work after school sometimes have to rush out of school just to make it to work on time, and they then work for hours on end. Most students go to work so that they can have money to buy things they want.
Kolten Wragge, who is a wrestler as well as photo editor for the yearbook, tries to find a balance with activities and school.
“Balancing school and wrestling is pretty tough because my most important practices are on Monday and Wednesday nights, and Wednesday is also now a church night so it gets pretty hard to balance but keeping up with my homework and getting better at the sport I enjoy is easy for me since I usually do all of my homework from about 10 p.m. to midnight when it is due. I am a procrastinator so to say, but it works for me. My sleep schedule on the other hand is not balanced because I don’t sleep well, but I can on days I have no obligations, so usually on Tuesday," Wragge, a junior at Pierce High said.
The cost of these high school students having to participate in long practices and long work shifts is that they are not getting as much rest, do not have as much free time, and it can cause lots of stress.
Many students may state that this is very stressful and that they should not be put in situations like this. Working or competing in extracurricular activities can help students develop responsibility and can prepare them for the real world by also helping them improve their time management skills.
