So maybe I did not want to do drama, but I ended up doing a lot of things. Actually, too many things to do any of them well. Without even including the things that were single events (like Model UN and Girls State), here is what I can remember trying.
Science club: This is the only one where I ended up in the yearbook photo, which is odd because I did the least with them. They had meets and prepared for meets, and I did not do any of that.
French Club: You know, we went downtown once, but I don’t remember doing anything particularly French on that trip, and I’m not sure what the point was. My main club participation was reading palms in French at Le Village, an annual fundraiser and expo. Also, I delivered roses on Valentine’s Day. I wonder what we used the funds for.
Spanish Club: I read palms in Spanish for El Pueblo, which had some strong similarities to Le Village.
Literary Magazine: I helped out some during the first year, but the staff was a little pretentious, and I gave up on it. Of course those people graduated, and I would have liked their successors better, but I just never went back.
Student government: I would sometimes just observe their meetings when I had a free period. This would probably have actually been very annoying for them, except then I ended up helping decorating for dances, or recruiting chaperones for the prom, so that may have mitigated things a little.
Amnesty International: I participated in at least one letter-writing session.
Earth Club: I remember they were going to plant seedlings, and I couldn’t go, and they had an awesome fundraising booth based on maneuvering a boat around an obstacle course in a wading pool without spilling oil. (This was not long after Exxon Valdez.) I was not a part of it at that point.
I also tried some different volunteer work, but what ended up being the issue with a lot of these things is that I was also working a lot, and there was just finite time. The things I participated in the most were speech team and sports management, and those were things I set my work schedule around.
Well, I set my work schedule around speech tournaments anyway. I did not end up at practices often. That was why I did not end up in the pictures, which is not a big deal, but perhaps if I had gone to more practices, I would have performed better. I have to admit, our coaches were not high pressure, and I appreciated that. I tried almost every event, and they let me bounce around like that. Eventually, I found out that my real strength was After Dinner Speaking, and I did make state one year, but I was not great at it. Also, I wish I had found Student Congress sooner, because I liked my experience with it, and I think I could have done well.
I think there were different factors contributing to my scattered accomplishments here. One is just that I want it all. I want to do everything, learn everything, read everything, travel everywhere, meet everyone, and not miss a thing. Impossible, but I still try and reach out pretty far. I haven’t changed that much there.
The other thing is that with both speech and sports, it took me away, and it got me there. With a lot of the activities, to participate fully you needed rides, but the speech team usually had a bus, and if not they worked out carpools. The sports teams always had a bus. The speech team went better places (college campuses), but the sports teams went more often.
If I wanted to avoid thinking about whatever was wrong, well I definitely had no time for doing so anyway, and I had tasks to focus on, which was my big coping method. More on that later.
22 minutes walking outside
Rest
2nd Nephi 25 – 2nd Nephi 18
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