Do Exonians Have Time for Hobbies?

By: David Chen, Anna Kim, Lauren Kim, Emi Levine

Rushing from mathematics class to Spanish class. Donning sweaty jerseys and dashing to the athletic fields. Bolting into the Bowld for an orchestra rehearsal, trusty instrument in hand. Grabbing a meal with friends in Wetherell or Elm. Let’s not forget a violin recital tomorrow night or perhaps the English essay due the following morning. If asked, any Exonian would gladly delineate to you of their packed schedules, piles upon piles of homework, and pressing extracurricular commitments. A common trope for the majority of Exonians, being immensely busy and engrossed in school activities is a reality that students at the Academy face on a daily basis. Yet, extracurriculars and academics aside, do Exonians still do stuff for fun?

Students shared with The Exonian whether or not they felt that Exeter provided them the time and support to pursue hobbies simply in the name of enjoyment. In regards to student leisure, a common saying on campus is that “Exeter is the death of hobbies.” As senior Isa Matsubayashi put it, “For most Exonians, there’s this underlying anxiety that if you’re not being productive, you’re just wasting your time.”

Students described their experiences with pursuing hobbies at Exeter amidst rigorous academics, extracurriculars and athletics.

Senior Zoë Barron explained the exhaustion that accompanies being a student at the Academy. “Before Exeter, my hobbies included painting, drawing, and writing. Now, my ‘hobbies’ include napping. Long story short, I don't really pursue hobbies on campus,” Barron said. “For the most part, when students are not involved in academic or extracurricular activities, they need that time to rest. At that point, there's just a lot of exhaustion, and it is difficult to pursue hobbies. In my experience, the rigor of Exeter has not allowed for any hobbies.”

“Often, I forget how much I used to love art because I never have any time to paint,” Barron continued. “Before Exeter, that was a huge part of my identity, and now it has slipped away. There is also a stigma at Exeter that if you're not being productive, you're wasting your time—and ‘being productive’ is usually confined to clubs and schoolwork.”

Matsubayashi agreed. “I’ve realized that through my four years at Exeter, whenever I have free time, I feel like I need to do something productive. Whether that be catching up on homework or working on extracurriculars, I feel like I have to spend it on that. If I choose to do something for myself, like reading a book, I just feel like it’s a waste of time. I’ve been working to get away from that for the past year, but it’s really hard. For most Exonians, there’s this underlying anxiety that if you’re not being productive, you’re just wasting your time,” Matsubayashi said.

Upper Adaeze Barrah also mentioned how her priorities differed while at Exeter versus at home. “I like to read and play the piano. Stationery shopping is fun too. It’s funny, though: I can vividly remember doing these things during the summer/any free breaks I have, but once I step on campus, the time I spend on these hobbies sharply decreases,” Barrah said. “If piano wasn’t a required class for me, some weeks may not even include the instrument at all. I’ve only recently started to regain control of the things I do leisurely, but that cushion of time, although growing, is meager.”

Similarly, upper Emma Chen elaborated on students’ difficulty finding free time. “I used to paint a lot when I was at home and then coming here, there’s less time. Like, of course, it depends on your personal prioritization and making time for things, but overall, it's just really hard,” Chen said.

Students overwhelmingly cited Exeter’s “work-a-holic” culture as the reason for difficulties in pursuing hobbies. “Long story short, I don’t believe Exeter’s academic/extracurricular rigor allows time for hobbies,” Barrah said. “Students are scrambling to do their homework on time, let alone spend time doing things that bring self-fulfillment outside of the requirements of the social sphere. It’s gotten to the point where, instead of doing hobbies strictly for leisure, many students find hobbies so long as they can boost their academic profile,” Barrah said.

Barron agreed. “The Exeter schedule and way of life are not set up to encourage hobbies. You have roughly four to five classes on an average day, then several hours of homework, as well as club meetings. Time outside of that, if there is any, is often put aside for self-care in whatever form may suit someone. For some people, self-care is lying in bed for an hour watching Netflix because they need to do something mindless. For others, it's doing laundry. The list goes on and on, but the point is that between keeping up with Exeter's rigor and trying to protect your mental health, there isn't much room for hobbies. I have tremendous respect for people who are able to maintain their hobbies on this campus, but I think it's a lot to ask of someone,” Barron said.

Other students maintained that there is time to squeeze in non-academic activities, but students just need to take advantage of Academy resources. “Exeter gives us so many opportunities to find something we are passionate about, whether it is a subject, a sport, or the arts,” upper Danielle Sung said. “The school is also willing to give us all the resources that we need to succeed and develop greater passion in our areas of interest, so it is really up to us to take the opportunity and resources and utilize it to the best of our abilities. However, because of all the rigorous coursework the students have, it is hard for the students to find time to take these opportunities and resources Exeter can provide. Personally, I had been very interested in art since middle school, but it was after coming to Exeter that I discovered my great affection and passion for it.”

Upper Jose Vivanco pointed out the difficulty in pursuing hobbies when those activities are not supported by the Academy. “If the school gives you the option to do something like a course or a club or some extracurriculars, then there’s definitely more than enough time during the week with the schedule, but if what you’re trying to pursue is something that is not necessarily related to the schedule, or that Exeter offers, then you definitely don’t have time to do it,” Vivanco said.

Prep Alan Bu described how he makes time for his hobbies. “Maybe it's just my bad time management, but sometimes I can go and play like four or five games of chess at night, maybe it's like 8:00 PM, and I have all my homework done. So it's a really lucky night and I think ‘Okay, I'll spend a few hours playing chess,’ but then I just keep playing until it's like 2:00 AM,” Bu said. “It's fun to do hobbies, and I think some of us are willing or even happy to cut into our sleep, if we have fun doing it.”

“I do feel that it's unfortunate that you do have to sacrifice something,” Bu added. “Maybe it's your mental health or something else. But I do think for some people here, even if it's not great to have to sacrifice one part of your life, it's worth it. It definitely would be better though if this was not an issue.”

Prep Finn Tronnes talked about the difficulties of creating time to focus on other, non-academic activities. “All of our time is filled with stuff that's productive. We have days off, but it's just a day to do work and everyone says that, but it's true. There's barely any time that's just for you.” he explained.

Chen had similar thoughts. “This is a problem with the whole system, but with college applications and always feeling the need to produce stuff for the sake of applications and not for oneself, it really sucks,” she said. “A lot of students felt that way where it's like, if you're not being productive and doing something, that's kind of worthless.”

Senior Noah Lee agreed. “[Exeter is] super academically rigorous. You have all these time commitments. I don't know what else could be done without having to sacrifice part of what makes Exeter a competitive and strong institution,” Lee said.

Students suggested ways for the Academy to support student leisure time. “If Exeter cares enough about students to encourage hobbies, they should address the issue of excessive homework,” Barron said.

Barrah agreed. “The most obvious solution to this issue is to provide more free time. This can be chaotic to figure out, so the Academy may elect to instead allow bigger chunks of free time in the day rather than smaller ones. Having small one-hour bits and pieces of freedom gives me just enough time to do very little. If a student has one free period at a time from 8:00 to 3:20, the mindset is that they had class for over seven hours regardless of how much of that time was actually spent in a classroom,” Barrah said.

Senior JaQ Lai also advocated for more free time. “I do understand the academic rigor does take a lot of time [from] students' lives. But when you have the free time, you can explore and decide on these hobbies that you want as well. The roadblocks to having fun, I would say are also just like, you're at school. So then sometimes you feel almost guilty doing something you enjoy instead of studying or doing homework. But what people forget sometimes is the benefits of doing a hobby.”

“I think one tangible thing that Exeter could do would be give a whole day off, maybe once a term or something, just for students to do whatever they want with, without having to worry about going to classes or doing homework or anything like that,” Lee said.

Sung shared advice for people hoping to make time for hobbies during the school year. “Take advantage of your weekends and Friday nights to do the activity you like. I know it’s hard to motivate yourself to do ‘extra’ activities on top of schoolwork, but it’s really worth it and you feel proud of yourself. Since we don’t have too much free time each week, I really like to plan things out ahead of time — sometimes I would be willing to give up a little bit of socializing to work on my art project, while making time on other days to socialize with friends, whether it’s by playing squash or just taking walks,” Sung said.

“My biggest advice is to manage time well,” Barrah said. “I know it’s easier said than done, and I’m more than aware of the fact that the struggle for decent time management is always being fought. Exeter’s schedule shows you exactly how much that hobby means to you. Take it day by day: it’s not worth the stress to squeeze in a hobby that just won’t fit, but it’s also not worth the stress to go days without taking time for yourself. Learn your schedule, learn your work patterns, and make some decisions.”

Lower Hannah Rubin agreed. “You have to be really efficient with your time. If you want to add something new that you like into your day, and if you're feeling that you don't have enough time to do that, I guess you just have to be really aware of how you're spending your time,” Rubin said.

“One thing to be aware of is how much time you're spending on your phone, or with friends or even just how much time you're spending on homework. If you're spending four hours on your biology work, you should probably shorten it a little bit or just ask the teacher for help… I'm sure there's a way,” she added.

Prep Sophie Zhu had similar thoughts, and talked about how Exeter students use whatever free time they have. “I feel like the most important aspect of time management is just taking advantage of every single second you can get. I remember I came to see a speaker at school and I arrived 10 minutes early, and even then there were students who were sitting two rows in front of me, doing their homework, even for 10 minutes,” she said. “Taking advantage of those little amounts of time, even just between classes, or during universal frees, can be really valuable. Even though they aren't, you know, an hour and 45 minutes, taking advantage of those 25 minutes that you have, can get half of the homework for one class done, which can be really worthwhile. And that way in the afternoon you have time for sports, clubs, extracurriculars, and your hobbies,” Zhu added.

Lower Alysha Lai said “Sign up for clubs, there are a lot of fun clubs you can join. There's knitting, which you can join, and sometimes it's just helpful to have a set time, so you can look forward to it, but also you don't get lost in it as well.”

“And then I would also say, save it for the weekends. And most people do this anyway, but I realized that sometimes I get really excited when I start a project and it's a form of procrastination almost where I always want to work on it throughout the week,” she added. “But it’s something to look forward to. And by the end of the week, you can pursue these hobbies in your free time as well.”

Rubin added, “I think it depends on the person and the hobby. Exeter can inspire you a lot. Seeing people who also are passionate about that and are maybe even better than you can inspire you to try even harder with something you love,” she said.

Upper Zara Ahmed shared similar thoughts. “Branch out. Because there's a lot of ways to have hobbies here. It's just finding all these things that you have a passing interest in, but you really want to get involved in. I think when you find people that share it, it motivates you to do it more. And then obviously we're kids because it doesn't matter how interested you are, you don't have time. You're not going to be able to,” Ahmed said.

Tronnes offered that spending time alone could make room for leisurely time. “[What helps is] taking time away from everyone and understanding that you don't always have to be around people and doing something like that. Cause that was something for me. I felt bad if I was just hanging out alone, like drawing or something, but you don't always have to be with other people. You can just take time and do what you want to do. And that's fine,” he said. “Just think about what you want to do and do it.”

Lee also expressed the importance of sleep. “Everyone says it, but get sleep… If you get your sleep, then you'll have energy the next day. I don't really know though, I'm a procrastinator. I know some people who are procrastinators and I wish someone would give me advice for it, but I think we all just make time somehow, even if we really can't afford it,” he said. “If we like something and if we're committed to something, like a hobby, then there'll always be time to do it, I guess.”

Ahmed talked about the common phrase, “Exeter is the death of hobbies.” She said, “I think it's definitely fair to say that it's the death of hobbies because we don't have the time for them, but I don't think it's the death of interest in hobbies. You got to work to make sure you don't stay away from things you're like for so long that you forget you like. So many people I talk to are like, I don't even remember what I did for fun lower year or prep year. That's so sad,” she said.

Zhu had similar, but slightly different thoughts. “I guess I partially agree. I think it's different for each student. People who manage their time really, really well can get to do a lot of things. But some students may not be 100% motivated every single day, which is perfectly fine,” she said.

It’s a guarantee that students will experience packed schedules and bustling atmospheres at the Academy. However, with just a bit of passion and time management, a busy day will never stand in the way of pursuing any hobby. “Here at Exeter, there are a diverse group of people who do the craziest things. Some people have the coolest hobbies ever, so I would love to see people continue their hobbies and share them with others,” Alysha Lai said.