▶ Your Answer :
Undoubtedly, non-academic activities play a significant role in
students’ daily lives in many of the places where they study and play. There
are many beneficial ways to young adults such as gaining practical work
experience by having a part-time job or by volunteering, learning to play a
sport, or learning to play a musical instrument. If I were asked to choose one,
I would say that learning a sport is the best activity students can engage in
on both a day off from school and in the evening after school. There are
several reasons as follows.
To begin with, when students learn a physical activity in school, it
allows them to cultivate important qualities needed for success. Playing a
sport can help them relax and recharge their batteries. When they are
recharged, it is likely to move forward in school. For example, Duke University
discovered a huge difference between two groups of 17-years-old students. One
groups consisted of those who learned to play soccer every Saturday, and the
other group was made up of those who were not interested in any sport and engage
in other activities such as a part-time job at a restaurant, a volunteer work
for destitute people, or a lesson about playing drums on weekend. The
researchers found that the former was more likely to have a higher score on the
SAT than the latter. In particular, many of the first group showed a longer
attention span, a stronger passion in their tasks, and a better ability to
delay gratification. On the other hand, most of the second group tended to get
distracted easily, procrastinate, and act on impulse. This implies that learning
about physical activities is the key to success. Without exercising, one would
fall behind.
Moreover, learning to do exercise enable them to improve their mental
performance. When people exercise and sweat, their body muscle warmed up by
humidity and heat. This is likely to release their muscle tension caused by
stress and anxiety. For instance, when my sister, Sujin, was in high school, she
often felt depressed thinking that her life became an exhausting routine. She
was not only always under pressure obtained from her part-time job at a
convenience store on weekend, but her unique hobby, practicing playing guitar
after school, also was not enough to reduce her stress level. Fortunately, she
was able to deal with such pressure by joining practice for her school baseball
team every evening while quitting her part-time job. Also, she stretched right
before the practice so as to relieve tension and fatigue. Her body felt lighter
after her after-school workout. By doing this, she was able to let off some
steam. If she had continued only to worked by a part-time job or by
volunteering and learning to play a musical instrument, she would not have been
able to relieve her stress.
All things considered, I strongly believe that the advantages of
learning about a sport far outweigh the advantages of the others for the
reasons I have mentioned above. All in all, playing a sport during free time cannot
be overestimated in the pursuit of happiness in life. |