Clubs: Benefit or Blunder? 

By Benjamin Oleson

Staying at school for more than you have to do sounds like a nightmare, right? While you may say that I (and many more) are here to oppose that, and that leads us to the main point of the article. Clubs are a fun way to spend after school time… in school. So some members of the newspaper club and I went all across the school interviewing different kids from different clubs. 

We interviewed the art club, the young authors club, the math club (not team), Moana Jr. Play members and finally us here at the newspaper club.  

First of all, the art club. This is the first place we visited when we started branching out to other clubs for interviews. One person stated, “Clubs are a fun way to meet people and have a break while doing something fun.” Or another said that they joined because the gardening club stopped during winter.  Some others joined because their friends were in it or because they like to draw or they “like to do fun things after school.” From what we gathered from interviews and what we saw while there, the art club is a fun place where you can make anything your heart desires or make collages with friends or sculpt things. The ideas are endless.

Second, there’s the math club. While I have to say that this club was probably the most fun to interview, there wasn’t much that differed from person to person. And the most hilarious part is that not one person joined voluntarily. Every single member was forced to join by their parents! But all the kids still have fun there. I have to say that while it might sound miserable, everyone in there was hanging out and talking with their friends. Plus if you get stuck on something you have tons of other people to help you. With all the homework being done there, we finished up quickly and went to the next club. 

Third, we have the young authors club. The young authors club is a place where you can write and share stories with the rest of the club, and sometimes with the school if you ask the newspaper club which is right next door. One person said, “I love to write and I need something to fill in my time.” One thing that I would like to point out is that some people have to wait for parents to pick them up later, so they might as well join a club. “I’m already in the building and I like to write with friends.” We have to remember that every club is different in its own way. Like this person who stated, “I joined to hang out with friends and write a story with them. Plus it’s something I wouldn’t otherwise experience.” This shows how passionate some people (including I) are about their clubs and how happy they are to be in them. Fourth, we have the play. The current play is Moana Jr. and we interviewed some of the people in it. One person said that they joined since they liked theater. Another said that, ‘theater is life’ meaning that they’ve been doing theater for a while and someone said that they like singing. Overall they were awesome to interview, and the performances are on March 30th, March 31st, April 1st, and April 2nd. Please go buy some tickets and see the play as soon as possible.

Finally, we’re back home at the newspaper club. In the newspaper club you can do various things, such as write articles, trivia, comics, memes, and much more. The first person I interviewed makes comics, and they stated, “I wanted to join this club since I wanted to create things.” Another person said, “My friends encouraged me to join.” One of the leaders in the club says, “Make sure to read our editions that we work very hard on.” Trust me, we could never get the articles done without our two editors. Overall people said things like they had past experiences in clubs or it gives them more experiences or maybe they just simply liked to write. While I have to say that this is the best club, you should still view all your options.

With that last paragraph, this article has come to an end. I still have some left to say though. I asked two questions: “Why did you join this club?” and “Do you think other people should join ANY club?” If you notice, I never included the latter. I will say that throughout every club, and the 30 people we interviewed, no one said that you shouldn’t join a club. Some people said that you should socialize with people the same age and that share your interests, or that it’s an amazing way to spend your time, or one person from the math club said “you should join a club, but anything other than the math team”. And I think that is a poetic ending for this article. BTW thanks to everyone who contributed to the making of this article.