Quality, not quantity.

A few weeks ago, the National Honor Society (NHS) inducted its new members, including its honorary member, history teacher Brad Swain.

Swain spoke to members of the NHS about something that has been on my mind for a while now: he urged against trying to be the best at everything. He stressed that if you take on too many things, you will end up being the best a nothing. His challenge for students was to focus on one or two things and do the best job possible.

It would be awesome to spend lots of time after school working in a club activity without worrying about the three classes worth of AP homework waiting at home, or to have the time to catch up in other subjects without having to rush to multiple meetings.

We run ourselves into the ground trying to be everywhere at once, until it all begins to blend together and we no longer have the time or brain power to differentiate between the separate activities.

When you step back and look at it, what kind of high school experience is that? That doesn’t teach us the value of putting work into something, nor does it help us figure out what we want to do with ourselves outside of school.

We join clubs we think will look good, instead of clubs we find interesting. We take AP Calculus BC when we would do much better, and be much happier, in Statistics. We pick AP Biology instead of Oceanography for an elective because it’s an AP class, even though Oceanography interests us much more.

Why do we feel like we have to do so much? The answer is college admissions. This inevitably nasty process, which all students eventually have to go through, pushes us to do everything because we feel colleges will reject us if we don’t appear to be involved.

Just to be safe, we “involve” ourselves in every sport or club we can get our hands on. Then we throw a few AP and Honors classes into the mix so colleges won’t think we’re slacking off in our academics. It leads to the bags under our eyes in the morning and the stress that mounts as the weeks go on.

Despite the stress, we are continually pressured into doing everything. The answer to this problem is not simple, as I struggle with it myself.

But when do we stop? It is not healthy to become obsessive and do everything at once. Take it slow, students, and you will find yourself in a better position to excel.