Well, this sucks.

[naodrith]

While we were on vacation, I happened to mention that I wanted to join the swim team. Well, fine, momentary lapse. Now I don't want to do it.

But then my mother went and listened to me and took an interest in my life and talked to the captain, and now I am on the swim team.

It's not that hard to quit, really, and there are so many reasons to do it. I can't have a sport in my schedule for autumn because I need to do the play; I need the time for schoolwork; I need the time for my RPG; I need the time for my writing. And, you know, housework and socialising and stuff.

I just don't have the time or the inclination for this right now.

But, at the same time, I want to do it. Because I need more extracurriculars for my college applications. Because by all accounts third-year P.E. is brutal and I'll never survive without some motivation to exercise. Because it's really horrible that the one time Mom listened to me, she shouldn't have done.

Regardless, though, I have to go to practice today and see what's up.

It's stupid to even think of sticking with it. The schedule will drive me insane. I'm being stupid for hedging, because I have to quit. I know I do.

But I'm still not sure if I should.

Comments

[milestogo13.livejournal.com]

If it helps? This whole "You need extra-curricular activities to get into college" thing is, more or less, just something high schools made up to try and get kids into their after-school programs. I mean, ok, fine, if someone's a borderline case and the college is really unsure as to whether they want to accept them or not, that might be part of the tie-breaker equation, I will accept that as a possibility. But most of my friends had absolutely no ECs their entire high school careers, and every last one of them got into their first choice colleges. Hell, I only had band and ROTC and I got accepted to every Ivy League college in America (granted, I turned them down because I have no inclination to row boats and eat ivy, and only applied just to see if I could get in).

There isn't a college in this country that's going to look at a kid and say "Well Billy, that 35 on the ACT is impressive, but it says here you didn't run track when they asked you if you'd like to. I'm afraid you're just going to have to go to community college. Or maybe find some work in the "harvest picking" industry."

Colleges get a portion of their accreditation money based on the average standardized test scores of their students (which is why they make such a big deal out of those, by the way). They receive very little, if any, money for the average 100m backstroke times of their entering freshmen. High schools, on the other hand, have their entire extra-curricular activity budgets assigned to them based on past years' student participation. More students, more money, no students, no money.

You'll notice a pattern here.