Undoubtedly, free time plays a significant role in people’s daily lives in
many of the places where they work or play. There are many activities to engage
in on either a day off from school or in the evening after school: such as gaining practical work experience by having a
part-time job or volunteering, learning to play a sport and learning to play a
musical instrument. If I had to choose one, I would say that gaining practical
work experience or volunteering would be the
best idea. There are several reasons as follows.
To begin with, young people can improve their
sense of responsibility by doing work while they are studying. Working after
school requires them to be diligent, passionate and to
abide by rules. When such personal traits are developed, it’s likely to bring
better result in their school. For example, when my little brother was in high
school, he used to be lazy and selfish. To the be
specific, he tended to get distracted easily, procrastinate and act on impulse.
However, he changed a little by little after he got a part-time job after
school at In-N-out hamburger restaurant. Working as an paid worker required him to be punctual and responsible for
what he was in charge of. He was able to have a longer attention span, a
stronger passion to his tasks and a better ability to delay gratification.
Naturally, his academic performance was improved
that he got the a higher GPA in school
than before he got a part-time job. If he had selected sports or musical
activity to spend his free time on, he would have
fallen behind.
In addition, helping other people tends to strengthen the valunteers’
volunteer’s confidence. High confidence tends to
prevent them from feeling inferior to others and it enables them to devote
themselves to their community and thus they feel fulfilled and rewarded. A fulfilling experience tends to prevent their
life from being meaningless. For example, when my older sister was in middle
school, she was depressed thinking that her life became an exhausting routine.
She spent the whole day studying all academic subjects hoping that she could
outdo others. Although she made constant effort, it was not easy because
everyone was working as hard as she was. Fortunately, she was able to deal with
such pressure and stress in a safe way. She joined a volunteer club and cooked a
meals for the poor people once a week. By doing
this she could see the positive result she
contributed to. Many people around her started to respect her, allowing her to
be confident, optimistic and strong. This implies that helping other people is
the key to success academically as well as professionally.
All things considered, I strongly
believe that gaining work experience by part-time job or volunteer is the best
idea for spending one’s free time. All in all,
the importance of spending free time effectively cannot be overestimated in
life.