Back when I was in school, we used to have all kinds of co-curricular activities. In fact, I was lucky to be in a school with such a wealth of activities in store for the students.
From play competitions to humongous music competitions to elocutions to debates to dance competitions to symposiums to 2 day long fests to races to football and basketball and cricket matches. Holy hell, were these co-curricular activities fun.
And me, being the ever enterprising gentleman I am, jumped headfirst into this world of activities and dances and choirs and debates and speeches and even though I suck at sports, sports.
But, God, was it stressful. All day practices. All night long preparations. Endless discussions and debates about what to do and how to do it. And of course, the inevitable fights on issues that seem petty now, but back then were as big as Everest.
But, nonetheless, I loved it. The adrenaline rush of performing, the nervousness laden excitement and anticipation weeks before the event. And the rush of euphoria when you achieved something.
But unfortunately, not everything was all fun and games. For all the fun these events were and all the invaluable experience that they gave. They had one fatal flaw. They distracted me from studying.
Now I am not at all preaching the “studies are supreme” choir, in fact, I was the of quite the opposite view. But, I am not talking about a few missed classes and a few chapters of the syllabus not covered.
I am talking about missing all the classes in the day, not studying one bit, losing marks like Arnab Goswami lost respect as a journalist. And this plagued me. I was shattered when the results came out. For a 10th grader, this kind of stuff hurts like anything.
But then I did buck up, I did straighten my path to create if not the best, them optimum balance between the two aspects of my life as a student.
So here are my tips to create a balance between your co-curricular activities and academics:
1. DO NOT ignore your studies until the very end
You might be hella confident that you’ll be able to pull it off somehow in a miraculous manner and trust me, you won’t. You’ll wallow in tension and sadness at the end and mess up your chances of doing any productive study even more.
Do a few pages each day or a chapter or two each week, but maintain a connect. Don’t lose that. It will be very difficult to re-establish that later on.
2. Skip classes as less as you can
People are right when they say that half of the learning happens in the classroom. It’s that atmosphere. Those vibes which enhance your learning.
Doing this will help you take the load off from studying later on.
3. NOTES!
Perhaps the most important thing. Just keep them updated. period.
4. Don’t spend all of your time in co-curricular activities
Co-curricular activities are fantastic. But you need to take some time for yourself.
The time crunch which happens because of increasing pressure from studies and increasing work in co-curricular activities takes out personal rejuvenation time, which is very essential.
5. Whatever you do. Don’t compromise
Whether it be the classroom or the stage. Don’t hold back. Live up to your potential and focus on the thing you are doing at that point in time.
Don’t dilly dally, Harry.
So, that was all, I hope you found these tips useful. Co-curricular activities are wonderful beyond words but like the adage, my mom beat into me “Too much of anything baaaad”.
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