Revaulting wrote on Aug 13
th, 2014 at 8:32pm:
You never have spare time. It always comes at the cost of something else.
Sounds like you're starting college? If so, you've got a whole world of choices opening. Or, looking at it a different way, a whole world of options to say no to. For many, the habits they start in college are the habits they carry through life.
Team sports are excellent (Plaxico Burress notwithstanding).
Could not agree more, few things are as beneficial to someone in there late teens and early 20s as learning the ropes within groups people who may not be your peers in activities you would normally choose.
It is much easier to get along with people who share your interests and world view, too easy if you want to develop the social skills that are required for a successful life.
A childhood friend was quite brilliant (for our small town mind you) and class valedictorian. When he went to Caltech he joined the water-polo tea, while a swimmer growing up we had nothing like that, and he had always been more of of a physics club kinda of guy.
Years later, he told me that the lessons of friendship, accountability, teamwork, rivalry, pecking order, and many others had been just as valuable to his career success and happy life as his academic education.