The time to decide whether or not you like an activity does not exist—but the time to decide that you love an activity is ever-present.

Prior to Covid, I saw trying out new things as unnecessary in the grand scheme of life. If I had decided in 5th grade that I didn’t enjoy long-distance running, why would I try it out again four years later in 9th grade? If there wasn’t a clear incentive to take on another commitment, there was no reason to. I was living my simple life, going to school each day and either seeing friends or going home to complete my homework and play whichever game I was obsessed with at the time, probably Minecraft.

In a way, this lifestyle is reminiscent of how I navigated life in my childhood—if my parents made me do something, I had no choice but to do it. Time not spent doing random activities was free time, and was to be valued.

With the combination of getting older and lockdown happening, I’ve grown to regret the fact that I was slow to take up on new offer, and looked for reasons to decline invites to outings or urgings by my friends to join new teams and activities. 

I think it’s natural to regret not starting new activities earlier when you get older, but I wish I had started any activity at all when I was younger. The mindset of “I’ll try this, and if I don’t like it after a while I can stop” would have proven to be beneficial to my younger self, and given me more life experience that I could be using now.

While I could have controlled how open I was to the unknown earlier in my life, Covid has taken away opportunities and experiences from all of us, which is why it’s even more important than ever to be open to trying things out that you think you’d be opposed to, even if it’s not for very long.

A final motivator for trying out new things is the possibility of being led somewhere you wouldn’t expect by exploring new opportunities. It’s impossible to know the connections you’ll make, what passions you’ll find, or where you’ll end up simply from giving something a shot.

With the shortened amount of time we have to experience High School that came about from Covid, we should all be more compelled to join new classes, co-curriculars, or classes. Just because we try something once and don’t like it doesn’t mean we can’t find that we love it years later. While it’s valuable to not overwhelm yourself with commitments, gaining a lot of experience can rarely hurt and usually leads to greater opportunities. Sometimes, it can even show you a new hobby you hadn’t previously thought of as interesting.