Ladue High School junior Carrie Seleman has joined Patch as a new contributor with an insider's look to peer issues with teens in our community.

I know that I am not the only one out there who has had very limited free time on weekends.  I also know that this hectic nature is no stranger to society.  As a high school student, I spend my weekend attempting to balance family time with sporting events while making sure not to forget to feed my social life, not to mention fitting in studying somewhere.  The treacherous roads to Sunday morning only added to this lack of time.  Sometimes I wonder why I put myself through this.

 I constantly overhear my friends and peers complaining about their extracurricular activities.  On rainy days, athletes hold their breaths in anticipation as the afternoon announcements sound, listening for the proclamation that their practices are cancelled.

 What ever happened to the enjoyment in our after school activities?  We used to partake in extracurriculars because they were fun.  The only thing on our minds now is looking good on college applications.  We put ourselves through sports, music, and clubs that we could care less about.  What we do care about is looking busier and more impressive than the next person trying to get into those schools.

 Our participation doesn’t even express our personalities anymore.  People will go to any club meeting because they don’t yet have anything happening on that particular day.

We find ourselves faced with a catch-22.  The colleges want to see an excess of engagement in out-of-school activities, but they don’t want to admit cookie cutter students.  Either we only partake in the two or three activities that we truly find interest in and we don’t get accepted to our top colleges, or we endure a smorgasbord of extracurriculars, imagining what it would be like to be watching TV or hanging out with friends instead.

 It is no wonder why a most popular phrase among teenagers is “I hate high school,” or variations thereof.  We yearn for the days when we will take classes based primarily on what we want to do with our lives, not based on graduation requirements, the days when we will join clubs because they are fun and because that is how we want to spend our free time.  Until then, though, we are unfortunately stuck trying to please the ones who decide the next chapter of our lives.