But should you start junior high early?
Eh. This really depends, and I'm sure my two other fellow co-authors have a strong opinion on this topic, but from my point of view, it's okay to not do extracurriculars in middle school. As someone that did not participate in extracurriculars then, I have to invoke my bias in this and let you know that I turned down an offer for membership in NJHS (National Junior Honor Society). My reasoning (stupid, I know) back then was that I had no clue what it was-I should have done some research. I don't regret not joining it, and I'll talk about why later in this article.
Yes, that means you SHOULD be doing extracurriculars in high school.
Anyways, here are some of my views on why middle school might be a bit too early to begin extracurriculars:
1) There may not be a wide enough offering of choices for you to choose from.
In my area's middle schools, there simply is not enough types of extracurriculars to choose from. (disregarding extracurriculars outside of school-Boy/Girl Scouts is great, I hear!) What had happened to me personally is that almost nothing offered by the school interested me (not that my interests then were as developed as now). It would have also be very difficult (and may be so in your area too) to convince a teacher to become a faculty advisor for a club organization, as, in my experience, clubs aren't as prevalent in junior high, and a teacher may not be willing to put time into one (that being said, extracurriculars in high school are much more intense than junior high).
2) You may or may not be mature enough to handle extracurriculars.
Study time? Higher-end organization skills? Sometimes high schoolers lack these more mature aspects of growing up! Now, chances are if you've found this blog as a middle schooler, you're more than mature enough (this mainly pertains to those going after important positions) if you can understand many of the concepts on this blog! I remember how at the time I personally was more withdrawn, shy, and quiet-had I tried to run for a position or something along those lines and lost, I would have been crushed, never to try again. I also didn't "take risks" or do anything new until the time leading up to walking into high school (and I never regretted starting to do so!). Not only did I know I wasn't interested in becoming a member of any extracurricular at the time, I knew that I wasn't ready to work towards becoming a leader too!
If you have developed enough to be confident and have a wonderful understanding of group dynamics, then by all means, go for it! Otherwise, you are more than welcome to become a member, because everyone has to start somewhere, and you have to be willing to work to improve yourself.
3) Resumes usually "start over" once you reach a new educational level.
This is a for-sure, guaranteed thing. Whatever your current educational level, you will be expected to list things done after you began your current educational level. Yes, it's okay to have some middle school stuff on there in your freshman year of high school, but following that year, people will wonder why you placed something that, while was important to you, was very far in the past and usually has little pertinence to whatever you're applying to. Not to say that everything from the past educational level should be deleted immediately, but it's very difficult to justify keeping something on your 1-page advertising sheet...when you probably have many more recent, amazing things. This advice is coming from someone that helped a friend in college write a resume, to find out that only one thing from high school was on there-the magic time eraser WILL reach you!
I hope this helps someone out there, because I often didn't have anyone to ask for advice like this! Feel free to disagree with me, but again that's just my opinion. Look forward to comments below!
~SQ
No comments:
Post a Comment