Welcome to the life of an average high schooler, where 7 hours of school is enough to make you want to take a 3 hour nap everyday and call it quits, but add on sports practices or theatre rehearsals, and your day doubles in work.

After school, most students go home to rest from the long school day and work on their homework. However, a large amount of people find themselves staying after school for sports practice, musical rehearsal, or another club. With most sports teams practicing for two hours everyday, and rehearsals or games that sometimes run from 8 to 10 at night, how do they manage school work, sleep, and a social life?  

“This year, I’ve learned what exhaustion really means,” Alyssa Place said, a sophomore with a role in the upcoming musical “Footloose”.

Place finds that balancing homework and rest time at home between rehearsal is difficult, sometimes staying up till eleven working. Although this may seem late to some, a few may think otherwise.

Anna Weber, a freshman, holds a place on the varsity dance team at LHS and dances at her studio, Imagine Dance Project everyday after already having school and dance practice at Liberty. Weber’s schedule also includes Key Club and ASC.

“It’s hard to get sleep because of homework after dance, but it’s worth it,” Weber said. “I don’t really know how to explain it, dance just brings me joy.”

As busy as Weber’s schedule is, she finds it somewhat difficult to fit in time for homework and her other clubs. Despite the time consumption, she says dances is worth the time and effort and is a good stress reliever.

Olivia Guffey, although just a sophomore, is engaged in cross country, swim, track, ASC, DECA, and an early college program. She has been swimming for more than half of her life and hasn’t looked back since.

Guffey agrees that being involved in so many things keeps her busy and limits her time available to procrastinate on homework and being social. She lives a very busy lifestyle between clubs, taking college level courses, and school in general, but says its worth it.

”It’s a big commitment but it’s lots of fun,” Guffey said.

With big commitment comes dedication and teamwork, which are life lessons that are taught everyday on the field and stage alike, with friends and team members.

“Working on a team gives you life skills; it teaches you how to work with each other,” said Sydney Hilgenbrink, a freshman on the junior varsity cheer squad.

Working on a team not only teaches life lessons, but brings people together as well. Caesar Lohemer, a junior on the cross country team, likes reaching goals as a team.

“Everyone has the same goal so they achieve it together,” states Lohemer.

Together, everyone achieves more. You win together, you lose together. You put in your sweat, your tears, and sometimes even a little blood together. Nothing ties you closer than hard work and hours on the same field.

But, with hard, exhausting hours and a long night of homework, what keeps people motivated to continue? For some, like Jack Kavanaugh, a senior with a place on the varsity soccer team, their after school activities leave them tired the next day, and practice takes up a lot of time. What drives them to stay, even when times are rough? The answer for some is winning.

“Winning. Our end goal is districts,” grins Kavanaugh.

The burning goal hovering above him and his team drives him to stay, as they put in the hours of hard work.

Passion is what drives the mind and body to do incredible things. Even if that means practicing hours in a week, working late on homework, or losing sleep. For most that endure the struggle have little to no regret because being apart of something special no matter how hard, makes you feel special.