Ever since I was a Freshman in high school I have been in multiple extracurricular activities. First I was involved in marching band during the fall season, then when the winter came around I was in my high school's winter percussion ensemble. The reason I joined was because I loved to drum and I wanted to become the best drummer I could be. When I got to my first rehearsal for marching band I was looking around and I saw that people already knew each other and many of them were highly experienced.
Naturally I felt shy and a little intimidated, but that is completely normal. After a few months into the season I've started to make friends and I started fitting, it felt like I belonged there. Since most of the group members who were in my section of marching band joined the winter percussion ensemble I had no problem maintaining my friends. After that first season I stayed in the ensemble all throughout my high school, and even today I help teach the incoming students.
The reason why I'm telling you all this is because after I joined marching band it opened my eyes and made me understand that joining a club is the best thing for you. You get the chance to meet new people and to really let out all of your emotions into the activity. When it comes down to it you're there for the same reason they're there.
Another club I just recently joined a couple months ago was improv club, and that is the class A definition of goofballs being goofballs because they want to make people laugh. Even though I joined way late into the year, and I didn't know 90 percent of the group they still treated me with open arms.
I've always had this small dream of going up on stage and making people laugh. Thanks to these ladies and gentlemen I was able to work on how to make people laugh. I learned what sells and what doesn't sell to people my age and I learned how to go with the flow. One of the best things though, which happens in all clubs, is that they, just like the marching band, gave me a shot to be pretty good.
Whenever you are on a sports team you can tell who's bad and who's good, but the problem is is that after a certain age you don't give the people with less skill a chance anymore, which is a huge issue. I don't want to trash on sports teams because I love sports and was involved with them for many years but the main difference between a club and a sport is that clubs focus more on enjoyment and fun and sports focus on winning. Even though both are very valid with different clubs and activities like marching band and improv it can be competitive, but they all try to build everyone's skill for the future too and insure that they are important for the clubs development. .
Being in a club and devoting all your energy into it is honestly a fantastic feeling. Not only will they have your back and support you, they will be your family too. So if you ever are on the fence about joining somewhere for whatever reason just do it... trust me.
