Busy Bee Hard at Work

In high school, the possibilities for involvement are endless. However, being involved in too much can have some serious downsides in addition to the numerous upsides. Students everywhere are busy and involved in sports, clubs, jobs and many other things. 

 “I am involved in three activities. I have a job, so that takes up most of my time after school. Then I have competitive cheer that takes up time, and then I have high school cheer which takes up some time too. So I’m really busy over the weekend. I cheer at the Sunflower Gym, and I work for the rec center over the summer and the weekends,” Alexis Yoder, 9, said. 

Many students would consider themselves busy even while doing just a few activities, and in order to consider themselves not busy they said they felt like they may have to drop everything.

“I go straight from school to work to volleyball, and I get home at 10:30 [p.m.] and then I still have to do my homework,” Peyton Buscher, 9, said.

There are the risks of being too busy and not being on the healthy side of involved. Some risks include damage to mental health, physical health, inability to commit to relationships or friendships as much, academic struggles and being deprived of important things like sleep.

“You get tired and sleep deprived and don’t really have any time to sleep and be healthy.” Buscher, 9, said.

However, there are risks to not doing anything at all as well. These risks include not meeting people or making friends and not getting the most out of the high school experience. For some people, their activities have helped them develop. 

It’s not just school sports and other “real” commitments that can leave students feeling overwhelmed and busy. 

“I absolutely have a hard time saying no to people when they ask me to do a bunch of  activities; I don’t want to disappoint people and I don’t want them to get angry at me. I end up feeling really anxious when I keep saying yes to everything,” said Alayna Sensenich, 11.

Most students agree there is a healthy level of involvement for teenagers of somewhere around three activities or commitments depending on how each student personally handles school, their homework and stress. Despite this, some students still don’t think they are at a healthy level of involvement. 

“Personally, I don’t feel like I’m at that healthy level; sometimes I do feel overwhelmed with school and activities, so I feel like I do maybe need to consider letting one activity go,” Daley Browning, 9, said. 

Some students said they feel pressured to keep doing more and more; they have a hard time saying no. This habit causes them to become more and more busy which leaves them feeling overwhelmed. 

“Just say no. It’s not going to hurt anybody’s feelings if you’re going to say no to them if you are too busy doing something,” Yoder advised. 

Carlie Madsen, 11, is super active and does activities to support that.

“I feel like my activities I do make me who I am. In cheer I am a happy go lucky person so I feel like I belong here and I have a lot of friends here. In band, I love music. I love to run around and I’m always running around in band. I’m friends with a lot of people in band, even the director,” Madsen said. 

Busy students often say the phrase, “Once I get caught up, it’ll be fine.” These students may stay up late at night working on homework and completing other tasks until they are done, then, when they get to school the next day, they are so tired, they can’t pay attention, and the whole process starts over again. 

“I used to say that, but now I’ve learned that I can’t juggle everything at once. You should focus on your grades, more than you should on outside activities. So if you get your grades up then you feel like you can do more outside of school,” Yoder said.

At the end of the day, students have the ability to do as many activities as they want as long as they understand how to balance school and activities.

 “In order to keep my job and activities balanced with school, I don’t procrastinate,” said Ashley Pahl, 10.  “I get right to work when I can and get it done. I also use Bronco Hour to my greatest ability.”