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Even the mere idea of a "No School" day brings drool to the mouths of high school students. The fact that I recently spent five and a half hours at school on a day off is sad. Sadder yet is that I chose to be there. School plays require a ton of time and effort, even if your mad acting skills landed you in the well-known role of "Villager No. 3." It seems that teenagers are spending more time at school, because they are participating in so many extracurricular activities. Their huge involvement outside of class rises the inevitable question: Why would anyone ever willingly spend their free time at school?

The answer to this quandary can be viewed in the teenagers' rise in involvement. If you ask a high schooler what clubs and activities they belong to, most SSHS students will generally list at least three or four. High schoolers currently are involved with so many activities that we often times spend ten to twelve hours on any given week day at Steamboat Springs High School. I personally am involved with Speech Team, Gnosis, Culture, the play, Teen Style, Periscope, and I work. Even with all these activities, there are more clubs I plan on participating in next year. As busy as I feel, my schedule is nothing compared to the schedules of many kids at our high school.

It seems that we must have something to do at any given moment. We have become "Super Teens." This probably is because we like being involved, and the pressure of competition into colleges is rising higher all the time, because of the increasing population. In order to set you apart and achieve worthy status, students feel that we must have a hefty list of extracurriculars, stellar grades and a one million on our SAT.

Don't get me wrong; non-school related activities are awesome because they provide an opportunity to meet new people who share similar interests. Inevitably, this causes us to spend hours on end at our favorite place in the world: school. This is not necessarily a bad thing. As much as we complain, there are worse places to be stuck than at school with a bunch of your friends. So get involved. You might even see for yourself what SSHS looks like at 9 o'clock at night.