The Student News Site of Menlo School

The Coat of Arms

The Student News Site of Menlo School

The Coat of Arms

The Student News Site of Menlo School

The Coat of Arms

Not enough time in the day: finding the perfect balance

Photo+Courtesy+John+McNelly
Photo Courtesy John McNelly

By Becky Swig ’15

 

Menlo students are so busy, that they do not have enough time to do the things the need to do. The students have so many things they need to balance and accomplish, that there isn’t enough time in the day to get it all done. They need to balance academics, sports, arts, extracurricular activities, social events, family events and the list goes on and on. Menlo students try to be so well rounded, that they face the challenge of getting everything accomplished.

One big balance struggle for Menlo students is academ- ics and sports. Everyday a student has practice until 5:30, sometimes even 6, for school sports. Some even have club sports on top of that. Not that doing sports is a bad thing, it just takes up a lot of time making it difficult to meet with teachers after school. At Menlo, the academics are rigorous, and they come first, but sports are a huge part of the Menlo atmosphere. Since a kid is done with sports at 6, that gives them only a few hours to eat, shower, and do homework if they want to go to bed at a reasonable time. Finding the balance with sports and academics is tough, because they are both so important to a student.

In addition to sports, kids have many other things to do outside of the classroom. For one, many students participate in outside of school activ- ities like music, dance, sing- ing, and art. To excel in these, a lot of time and effort have to be put in. Finding the time to do this and academics is a challenge because they both require so much time. There isn’t enough time in the day to get all of this done, so students are staying up extremely late to finish their work.

On top of extracurriculars, students have social obliga- tions as well. There is a big demand on being “social” which puts a lot of pressure on kids to attend all the Menlo events. There are so many sports games and music concerts and art exhibits, that it is tiring trying to attend all of them. Everyone wants to support Menlo, but there is so much going on that being social at all these events just can’t happen with all that the kids have on their plates.

Menlo students don’t have enough time in the day to do all the work and practices and events they need to. They are extremely busy that a 24-hour day just doesn’t cut it. With a seven-hour school day, two- hour sports practice, and all these events and other extracurricular activities, how does a Menlo student get all of their work done? It seems that so much is going on that students are drained by the end of the week. The struggle to balance everything is a challenge, but somehow Menlo students pull through.

Students are expected to take part in various activities because Menlo has a well-rounded culture. Students feel pressured to be extraordinary in everything they do because of the reputation Menlo has. When you hear the name, “Menlo School,” people automatically think great academics, great sports, great creative arts. Students have to live up to this stereotype and in doing so they are draining themselves.

There is an easy fix to the Menlo culture. Instead of students being expected to be amazing at everything, they should focus on excelling at one thing outside of the classroom. They should strive to be the best at what they are passionate about, not what others want them to be. Focusing on one outside activity or sport will lighten the load of students. They won’t have to work hard at everything they do, just the thing they love. If everyone were to do this, then students will have more time to themselves, and spend less time stressing. Finding one thing you are passionate about and focusing on that will make the lives of Menlo students more manageable.

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