It's never too late to get involved

It takes time for anyone to re-establish a routine, and Marysville High School students are no exception. After three weeks of resisting the urge to hit the snooze button every morning, however, students are finally getting back into the swing of things. Classes are running smoothly, sports are going strong — but the clubs aren't yet back on their feet. Not to worry, though. Club Week is here!

All week long at lunch, there will be music, games and dancing — festivities guaranteed to attract students to the street, where booths are set up for all the clubs Marysville High School has to offer.

Behind every little stand are a club adviser and a few returning members, who happily answer any questions students might have about that particular group, and on each table is a sign-up sheet. Club Week is, after all, the school's way of getting students interested in and involved with its array of extracurricular activities.

So far, it seems to be serving its purpose. LeAnna Prasad, a senior at MHS, said, "I think Club Week is kind of awesome because you get to see all of the clubs that are at the school and learn about them."

On the other hand, freshman Taylor Rapp said, "I liked the music, and I was interested to look around, but there weren't a whole lot of booths at the beginning of the week, and all the best ones were really crowded. That made it hard to find anything out."

Difficulties with hearing and being heard aside, the crowds are a good sign. They show that student interest in the clubs is holding steady, an observation that is mirrored in the fact that sign-up sheets for clubs like Academic Decathlon, Interact, FFA and REAL Girls are slowly filling up.

These extracurricular activities, and others like them, provide students with a way to make new friends while having fun and, in some cases, giving back to their community. They are a great way for freshmen to get more involved in the school, but it isn't only freshmen browsing the streets this week. Sophomores, juniors and even seniors are wandering around as well, asking questions and signing up for clubs they hadn't heard about, many for the first time.

"The music's always great," said senior Breanna Jory, "but I didn't really know what most of the clubs were, or what they actually did. Just looking around doesn't tell you much. You have to actually get up there and ask questions, which is a bit hard with the crowds."

Just as the music is a generally appreciated, the crowds are consistently the students' only complaint. MHS has a lot of students, and a lot of them are interested in the clubs, which leads to large clusters around too-small tables, but the enthusiasm is rife enough to keep Club Week going.

Twisting through the crowds and music and winding their way through everyone's heads this week are the words, "It's never too late to get involved."

And it isn't.

Faith Denny is a senior at Marysville High School. Her column appears every six weeks in Education.