Thank you for your advice. In the past, I didn’t care about joining other clubs and only cared about my programming hobby. Now, I think that I should be more we

Thank you for your advice. In the past, I didn’t care about joining other clubs and only cared about my programming hobby. Now, I think that I should be more well-rounded and pick up other activities, especially ones in which I am more likely to find companions. I will find an interesting club to join. w.r.t being better than others - I go to a school with a strong academic culture. In absolutely no way do people put each other down, not at all, but I feel like there is an underlying motivation to have good ECs to make oneself attractive to colleges. In particular, you mentioned the debate team, which, at least at my school, seems to me like a highly competitive club that boosts college applications. I feel extremely cynical about the culture of people padding college applications, so I had decided previously to ignore clubs and only pursue my passion of programming to be “true to myself.” However, now I feel a desire to join a club out of genuine pursuit of happiness (as opposed to boosting an application). I hope that I will find a club with a passionate and genuine culture, without competitive people. Before, my mother had told me that I should have activities outside school that I could show for. Part of it was for colleges, as I would have a hard time competing with others if I didn’t do much outside school. However, my mother also said that part of it was being a fuller person. I used to feel frustrated because I felt like she wanted me to do stuff just for college, a motivation that I felt was “phony,” but now I see what she meant about being more active in general.