How do I move forward with extracurriculars?

You are a freshman, and your focus should be on doing as well as you can at being a high school student. College is nothing more but the next step in your journey, and you should choose your colleges based on what you learned about your interests and passion in high school. College admissions is not a goal, nor is it a prize.

It’s too early for you to be thinking about anything but enjoying high school and taking advantage of as many of the opportunities that are there for you that you can.

A few more things:

In my opinion, you are trying to take on too many extracurricular activities. Your ECs should be things that you would do even if it had nothing to do with college admissions. You have a bunch of them, so you’re doing well.

Do. Not. Start. A. Non-Profit. If mental health is an important issue for you, start a school club and look for national organizations that have high-school activities and which support high school club/organizations.

Do not stress about Extracurriculars. The entire point of extracurriculars is to do stuff that you choose because it is important to you.

Keep on doing Karate - physical activity is healthy, it’s fun, and it helps you study better.

Follow up on that research project, because you will likely never have a better time in your life to do something like that. Reach out tp the scientists whose articles you are reading, and speak to them, visit their labs, maybe see if there is research that you can do as a high school student.

Keep up with creative writing and art. You will derive a lot of enjoyment from it, and it will enrich your life in many ways.

Only join quiz bowl and Science Olympiad if you genuinely like that sort if competition.

I will repeat - your problem isn’t that you don’t have enough extracurricular activities, your problem is that you are planning to do too much.

Look through your planned activities and remove the one which makes you feel the least excited. If there is an activity that you only want to do because you think that it will look good, remove it.

You are smart, ambitious, and have great ideas. You’re doing REALLY well, and you will likely do even better, as you find your place in high school.

Good luck!!

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