Week 12: Badminton…? - Amratha Rao

 Week 12: Badminton…? - Amratha Rao

A new activity has been added to my schedule this week, and I can very much say that it has been sucking the life out of me. Being on the Badminton team has probably been one of my biggest goals in high school, so I was thrilled when I managed to make the varsity team all three years. However, this year, I’m finding it particularly hard given that I also have to balance my heavy academic workload. 


I’ve been playing badminton since around 6th grade and nothing gives me a natural high like the one I get playing on the court. I’m sure the feeling is familiar to any of us who participate in an extracurricular activity. But being a particularly energetic person, badminton was the key to tempering my hyperactive tendencies and allowed me to exercise both mentally and physically. 



Going back to the topic of school, I’ve had three major English submissions in APENG alone this week, and I shouldn’t count out Mr. Takacs' ridiculously complicated Calculus assignments. Being a junior in high school and the looming threat of taking four APs in May just keeps adding on more and more stress. Now coming back from school and spending 2 hours every school night playing badminton everyday has severely crunched my time and is forcing me to be more active about schoolwork. In complete honesty, I can say that this has only worsened my situation and now I find myself extremely exhausted after coming back from school and waking up in the morning. Going to school has become just a blurb in my memory. 


But what can I do to help myself? Frankly speaking, I have no clue. I know that I’m passionate about both badminton and school work (kinda) but I need to sort out my priorities and learn how to balance my schedule. All my APENG assignments this week have just been a product of all my procrastinating last week and the same applies to AP Calculus work. My workload is manageable, but learning to take control over my schedule and mold myself into a responsible student is all that can help me right now.


I’m sorry for this train wreck of a blog! I literally have to go to badminton practice right now so… toodles. 


Image Credits: https://olympics.com/en/featured-news/badminton-racket-dimensions-measurement-length-width-string-shaft-handle-frame


Comments

  1. Pranav SreejayanMarch 6, 2022 at 2:27 PM

    Hey Amratha! Your schedule certainly seems extremely crunched. It’s inconceivable for me to ever do both sports and 4 APs at the same time and I am in awe of your achievement here. On that note, I do hope for your sake that the badminton season ends soon, especially seeing that AP tests aren’t that far away! Procrastination is a disease that everyone suffers from, so maybe anticipating it really is your best option, or you can simply wait to figure that out..

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  2. Shrinithi SathiyaseelanMarch 7, 2022 at 5:43 PM

    Hi Amratha! Congratulations on making the team! I am definitely not a sports person, but I find it really cool when other people play them, especially for a long time. Your situation really sounds difficult. I already find it hard to start the day at 4:00 after coming back from school to do homework, so I can't imagine how hard it must be to have an extra two hours or so cut out of your schedule because of practice. It's really a challenge to balance extracurricular activities and schoolwork, especially with sports. I hope you're able to get some more rest this week since we don't have much English homework.

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  3. HanyiMarch 7, 2022 at 8:50 PM

    Hey Amratha, I can relate extremely with the dilemma you currently face. Having to go to practice every day after school while somehow balancing the extreme amount of four APs has been a miraculous task that I do not know how anyone is able to accomplish. I remember during football season, I was having more than three hours of practices everyday after school and getting home at around eight every night. Paired with the necessity of showering and dinner, I was basically left with two hours every night to finish my homework and leave time for some sort of relaxing activity (and this is entirely assuming I do not procrastinate the majority of these two hours, which I am not proud to say occurs more frequently than I would like to admit). Nowadays, my schedule is quickly returning to just like that with football conditioning starting again, and I do not know how I will survive with the looming AP tests coming up. I sincerely hope you will be able to survive through this year while keeping up in both athletics and academics.

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  4. Yunshan LiMarch 9, 2022 at 7:32 AM

    Hi Amratha! I can definitely relate to this conflict that you feel. Schools are important and sports are so much fun, but sometimes doing them both is way too much work. I have felt this way so many times before and it has made it hard for me to decide whether or not to join a sports team every season. I always fear making the wrong decision. What if I find out too late that I can not handle both school and sports, but it is too late to drop out? These thoughts are extremely scary. I also like how to bring up the importance of prioritizing, because I am definitely someone who needs to hear that. I have been on the swim team, the soccer team, the water polo team, and I even tried out for the track team this year before I realized I could not handle the workload. I should definitely focus on the sport I like the most.

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  5. Winter AbernathyMarch 9, 2022 at 10:52 AM

    I can resonate with your predicament, I’m working the production and the days that I have to give to that definitely do compress my work time quite a bit. I also have times every now and then when my brain is incapable of focusing and getting things done which are extremely stressful especially when I planned that time to be a work period. I am working heavily on my work/life balance. I have realized that I have to set aside time each day during which I just take care of myself, even if the only thing I can manage to squeeze in that day is an extra 2 minutes in the shower. Maybe try that? It’s hard to be focused and hit all your marks when your brain is overloaded and burnt out so just a little extra time to care for yourself might do some good.

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  6. Tiffany ChenMarch 9, 2022 at 11:25 AM

    Hi Amratha, this post is super relatable, even more so because our schedules are basically the same (except for one class). However, even though I am not doing badminton, I pretty much passed away last week because of all the work, so I can only imagine what you've had to go through. I enjoy playing tennis, and I wanted to join the tennis team this year. However, I took my course load into consideration and did not want to torture myself, so I decided to not join. I do not regret my decision as I was able to sleep (relatively) early, which I would not have been able to do if I committed 2-3 hours per day to tennis.

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  7. Katrina ChangMarch 9, 2022 at 7:36 PM

    Hey Amratha, it is really amazing how you are able to balance so many APs with sports that take up so much of your time. I also have a hard time struggling to balance my extracurriculars with my school work, but what I found was helpful in making me more productive and efficient at completing all my homework was doing my work either with friends or in a new area besides my desk. It made dealing with all the work more enjoyable, so maybe you can try that too! Thank you for sharing!

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  8. Kristine DangMarch 9, 2022 at 8:28 PM

    Hi Amratha, I get what you mean with the severe time loss from just going to practice now that the season is back. As a swimmer, I tend to stay up later than before just to finish my work, exhausted from practice. I wish that teachers would be more lenient to us students as some of us are unable to work under such a heavy workload from having extracurriculars. They expect us to go home and do our homework right away while colleges are expecting us to be well rounded students with unique extracurriculars and interests. Although it may be tough right now, it’ll surely pay off in the long run.

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