Over-involvement causes excess stress

Published: Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Updated: Thursday, September 2, 2010 02:09

If there's one thing Truman students seem to excel at, it's finding ways to stress themselves out.

The activities fair this past Wednesday represents one of these ways: over committing. Almost everyone I know is involved in some University-related organization or activity, and most are heavily involved in several. The sheer number of clubs and groups represented at the activities fair is a testament to how involved we are as a student body. However, this is not necessarily a good thing.

Extracurriculars can be fun and might help us get to where we want to be in life, but they also can be immensely stressful. I'm sure almost all of us have that one meeting or commitment we dread every week or semester but attend anyway because we signed up for it in a moment of overly ambitious planning. And why? The start of a new semester is a good time to evaluate what commitments we've made and why we're doing the things we're doing. If you're not happy with the activities you've signed up for, why keep doing them?

A lot of people sign up for service organizations or academic clubs they hate participating in because they seem to think it's going to help them get jobs or get into graduate school. Most of the time that's just not true. Most schools and employers really don't care if you picked up trash a few times a semester or showed up to a meeting to talk about your major every week. Even holding a leadership position in a club isn't really an accurate indication of your ability to succeed at a job. If that's why you're joining organizations, don't do it.

There are some involvements that graduate schools and employers would be impressed by, but typically they aren't the sort of things to commit to unless they're something you're actually passionate about and would do simply for their own sake. Extracurriculars shouldn't be a means to an end but should be something you do because you actually want to do them. If they happen to look good on a resume — which is pretty unlikely in most cases -— cool, but the experiences you get from them should be your primary motivation for joining.

The best and most enjoyable out-of-class experiences for me have been recent and pretty time intensive. If I had signed up for lots of clubs and activities just for the sake of being "involved," I probably would have missed out on the legitimately meaningful ones I'm participating in now. So don't settle. If what you truly want to be involved in isn't available right now, don't sign up for the next best thing and coast by on half-hearted involvement. Make your own club. It's astoundingly easy to start a new organization through the Center for Student Involvement. If you really want to impress a potential graduate school or employer, don't just become president of some random club that isn't related to your post-college interests. Ask around about really meaningful positions and opportunities. Student-Initiated Courses are a relatively new opportunity for people interested in teaching at the college level. If students could help get such a program started, there are certainly many more opportunities we've yet to forge for ourselves.

So don't be swayed by advice to "get involved" during these first weeks of the school year. First, find out what you want. Take some time to enjoy being in college, find your interests in your classes, and think about what you really want to do.

There is no shortage of like-minded students and extraordinary faculty and staff members who can help you create the organizations and opportunities you want, so don't settle for joining things you "should" be a part of. I can tell you from personal experience — it's far more enjoyable and rewarding to commit to one thing you love than to be involved in a dozen mediocre activities.

Tyler Retherford is a senior anthropology major from Springfield, Mo.