Well, another school year has come and gone, and it’s been amazing to see all of the senior portraits that have come our way! I love to see the seniors come through the door just glowing with potential and looking towards the future!

Of all the students we’ve seen, about 90% of them bring some sort of sports uniform or something to do with activities they do after school, and we thought we would just take a moment to talk about the importance of extracurricular activities.

There are so many benefits to participating in activities after school! Of course, there are the obvious benefits that your counselor will tell you about: they look good on college applications (this is really true!) and help you to stay out of trouble by keeping you busy—but there are more reasons to get involved then that!

Your mental and physical health will benefit from after-school activities. If you’re in a sport, in dance, in marching band, or anything else that keeps you active, you’re taking care of your body. Or if you’re into something a little less strenuous like a book club, you’re taking care of your mind. Even just the social skills you are learning can help keep your mind and mental health in check!

You’ll make new friends and learn social skills, and the activities will help to keep you grounded. When you participate with other students, you create a support group for each other, and you learn to deal with people from all sorts of backgrounds and with all sorts of personalities—trust us, that will definitely come in handy!

As this year ends and we look forward to the next year, we always tell the upcoming underclassmen to try and get involved where you can. Do the things you love, and explore new experiences! I think you’ll find that your high school experience will be that much better for it. And then, when you are finally a senior, you can make that part of your senior portrait experience!

And we support all efforts to get creative!