Extracurriculars and Mental Health

With IMSA’s rigorous curriculum and surplus of extracurricular activities to do after school, students are blessed with many opportunities to enrich their high school experience. However, this blessing also serves as a curse when IMSA teachers collectively decide to dish out assessments all within a week of each other, a week before the quarter ends. To remedy this reality of student life, here are some vital tips to keep in mind to keep those cortisol levels to a minimum during hectic hours.

A Glass of Water

When it comes to balancing extracurriculars and stress, it’s important to not be a glass-half-full or half-empty person, but rather a glass-of-water person. Amidst IMSA’s competitive pool of students, it’s easy to get swept up in the college application storm or the expectation that you need to pad your resume comparable to that of Jonny Kim (look him up!). Stay realistic in your choices and actions.

Also, pick extracurricular activities that you enjoy. There are no extracurriculars that are better than others, so don’t feel pressured to join Speech and Debate when you don’t even like public speaking. Forcing yourself to participate in these activities can mentally drain you, take time away from things that truly matter, and not allow you to reap benefits of extracurricular activities. Instead, participate in activities that you love to spend your time meaningfully, actually replenish your mental energy, and grow in the field that you love. 

IMSA students are curious, and so it’s understandable when you want to be in a million different things because you genuinely want to. Nonetheless, part of staying realistic involves setting a limit for yourself based on your capabilities. Select the things dearest to you and explore them to the fullest in high school, and save the rest for later. Please still dabble in these other topics by getting involved around campus, but make sure not to overwhelm yourself by taking on high-commitment roles in all of them. 

Plan and Prioritize

With great activities comes great responsibilities. Commitment means commitment, so each one of your commitments requires you to take time and energy out of your day. Make sure to plan out each day accordingly, ensuring that you aren’t missing any crucial meetings, practices, or deadlines. Tools like Google Calendar can be super helpful in keeping track of the events that you have planned each day, and To-Do Lists are essential in helping me stay on top of not just extracurriculars but also academic work.

Although extracurriculars are fun (unlike problem sets or lab reports), it’s important to keep in mind that academics are your priority. Solid academic performance is the only way to guarantee that your extracurriculars will thrive (and that you will not be put on academic probation!). After your academics, make sure to have some system of prioritization, whether it be by urgency, level of commitment, or degree of impact, to always have a numbered list of tasks you follow. Oftentimes, we spend too much time trying to figure out what to do so that we end up wasting time, and having a set list of items to check off keeps us on track.

Communication is Key

IMSA provides its students with fantastic academic, mental, and career support, and an important way to manage stress from extracurriculars is to use these support systems. Reach out to your teachers if you are having trouble keeping up with the workload or not understanding the material. Too often, IMSA students fail to get the academic help that they need because they come from educational environments where they don’t need help on schoolwork, but make sure that you don’t fall behind on your schoolwork. If you feel stressed out, reach out to the counselors or a trusted adult to talk things out and organize your feelings. Of course, if you just need some time off, mental health days are a fantastic resource, despite some stigmas around them. 

It’s also key to communicate with others who participate in the same activities! Nothing is worse than an absent team member. If you cannot make an event, letting your teammates know will give everyone time to adjust, making it easier on both you and them. If you anticipate that the upcoming weeks will be very busy, talk to your colleagues to let them know that you can’t take on a lot of responsibility. Little bits of communication are essential in making you less stressed while taking in the consideration of those you work with.

Self-Care

We are all familiar with sleeping late at night finishing the group project everyone promised to finish or studying for a test you said you’d do over the weekend, and while sometimes these late nights are unavoidable, avoiding them is incredibly vital to taking care of yourself. Although self-care is touted all around the world, IMSA students don’t always do a fantastic job at it. Self-care doesn’t mean a 10-step nighttime routine that involves a diffuser; at its foundations, it simply means taking steps to make sure that your body is healthy and performing its best. Going to sleep, eating food, drinking water, spending recreational time, and keeping up your personal environment are all excellent ways to ensure that you are the best you can be. Starting the school day tired diminishes learning and can feed into irritability, stress, and emotional turmoil, leading to a dangerous snowball effect. At the end of the day, make sure to rest early and sufficiently, and sometimes, just apologize to that teacher about the assignment you didn’t finish, because it’s better to be sorry than unhealthy. 

Ultimately, you should explore extracurricular activities to find your passions and interests, but make sure that this exploration is not coming at the expense of your mental health. Taking active measures to ensure that you balance extracurriculars and stress is also beneficial to your academic performance, which should be your second priority, only to your health. Use these tips not just in terms of activities but also your schoolwork, social life, and more, and make sure to always enjoy what you do!