Written by Clare (she/her), student
When I first came to the University of Waterloo to study math, I didn’t know much about the extra-curricular activities offered at the university.
But, as someone who felt constantly busy in high school, I was not exactly concerned about it. I thought I would ease into the school year by focusing solely on my studies.
About a week into September, I realized that was not going to fly. I stumbled across to the clubs fair and was so excited by all the new possibilities in front of me that I must have signed up for at least 20 clubs.
The clubs for me!
Out of those 20 clubs, I found a few that I really loved. My absolute favourite is probably the knitting club. Knitting is not really something I ever visualized myself, a young university student, doing at regular weekly intervals, but it is something that I’ve come to look forward to every week. I’d like to say that it is a really nice break from math, but I am hesitant to write “break” because I am lucky enough to love what I study.
However, I can say that it is really nice to have a balanced range of activities to do every week. Knitting club activities consist of mainly, well, knitting.
But if I’m being honest, I mostly just chat with other people in the club. Club members are in all different faculties and programs, many of whom I would never have met outside of the club.
I’m also a scriptwriter for a UW theatre company, where I get to work creatively in a way I’m not always able to in my math classes. Finally, I enjoy pursuing some independent creative endeavours, such as trying to get better at the guitar or making YouTube videos.
Why clubs work for me
So, that’s what I like to do. This is not the full list of activities that I enjoy at Waterloo, and I’m sure my list is not yet complete as every term I seem to find something new that I love to do. I’ve tried out a lot of different things, and I haven’t stuck with them all. I have, however, stuck with the activities that make me feel happy and keep me busy.
For me, keeping busy during school is really important. It helps me be productive in my studies as I know that if I don’t keep up with my work, I won’t have time to do other things that I enjoy doing during the week. Doing lots of things also helps me feel well-rounded.
There is nothing wrong with doing math all day long, but I just feel happier when I am doing other things as well.
Plus, I like taking advantage of all the opportunities the university has to offer me, and I can’t wait to keep finding new adventures for the rest of my degree.
