Hi. Okay, so I’m a freshman at UC Berkeley and I think I might have accidentally did that thing where I signed up for too many activities during my first year and pursued too many leadership roles for such and now I’m feeling slightly overwhelmed.
Right now, I’m part of:
Cal Marching Band
Pilipino American Alliance, and the many sub-groups that are part of it, including:
Friendship Games
KAA mentorship program
PCN organizing volunteer
PAA interning program
P4, a Filipino business club
Hall Association Board
And I’m not in it but I’m realllyyyy interested in Paws and Claws
I realize with 16 class units I’ve definitely signed up for too many things at once and I’m not really sure what to do. My first instinct is to quit band because that’s what the most time consuming activity is, but it seems selfish to quit after working so hard to be a part of it. I love the people in band, but going to rehearsal Monday-Thursday and some weekends feels like a chore and I don’t know if I’m truly happy in it. The other activities I’m in are actually truly interesting to me because I’d like to be an RA next year and I want to continue learning about my Filipino culture. Even if I did continue band this semester, I definitely wouldn’t stay in it for next year.
I think staying in an activity that I know I won’t continue with next year is kind of pointless and defeats the purpose of joining. Usually people join things and stick with it so they can grow in the program.
If I do end up quitting band soon, do I have enough activities to impress the people at Haas? Should I actually quit or am I just going through a temporary crisis?
Definitely quit band if you aren’t getting anything from it and it feels like a chore. I was always the kind of person to stay in things because I thought other people depended on me or would be upset with me. But it’s not your job to sacrifice your happiness and potentially your grades to make others happy. I feel like college activities are more forgiving about dropping out because they know that academics are top priority for many students.
Consider dropping one of the Filipino groups too if, together, they also take up a lot of your time.
Maybe someone at Berkeley can answer the question about Haas, but I think that having stellar grades and deep, demonstrated commitment to a few groups is better than doing too many things and performing sub-optimally.
@OnMyWay2013 The only thing I like in band is the people, and I have a lot trouble letting go of people that I get along with. But I’m sure I can meet many other similar people through other things, hopefully, since it is just one campus.
I feel like first semester freshman year is the time to sign up for all the clubs that interest you and then drop the ones that end up not being as great, sort of like add/drop with classes.
My first semester, I signed up for the listservs of a ton of clubs. Some I realized I wasn’t interested in after just a couple emails, some I went to a few meetings for, and some I stuck with. I also joined organizations later on. Nobody’s going to judge you for dropping out of a club. You can’t do everything, and it’s much better to do one or two clubs you really enjoy and are passionate about rather than try to spread yourself too thin across a dozen organizations.