As a college student who is currently taking a macroeconomics class and is learning about opportunity cost, I think it is important to understand what opportunity cost is, in accordance with the definition I learned in my economics class, it is the time, money, and productivity that you lose to pursue something else.

While opportunity cost is easily one of the simplest concepts of economics to understand, it has a very big impact on my choice as college student. As a college student who is forgoing additional income, time with friends and family, and other things in the pursuit of an education, I understand how important it is to invest in educational opportunities as much as possible. Through my experiences however, I’ve learned that sometimes the best educational opportunities happen outside of the classroom compared to inside the classroom.

In high school, I was a three-sport athlete who was also involved in the band program at my high school. I found that being both an athlete and musician, all while going to school and taking a full schedule, helped me explore my education in ways that I couldn’t imagine possible. In college, I still have the benefit of being both an athlete and musician all while pursuing a four-year degree. I feel that my education has only been enhanced because of it. Therefore, here are some of the biggest reasons why you should consider being an athlete, musician, and student all at once.

It helps you explore education in a different way.

One of the biggest reasons why I choose to be an athlete and musician while I was growing up had to do with the fact that I am someone who has many interests. Ever since I was a younger boy, I had always wanted to be an athlete. Growing up with a sports-enthusiast father and watching sports as a little kid, I wanted to play football, hockey, baseball and other sports as my interests continued to change. I enjoyed the physical activity and I loved spending time outdoors. I found that sports taught me a lot of valuable skills when it came to school and life.

Being a three-sport athlete in high school, I found that the conditioning required to be an athlete helped me be more focused in school, and improved my grades. I found that the hard work, discipline, and teamwork that I learned in high school sports played in key role in helping me prepare for college.

When it came to music however, I learned how to push my creative boundaries. I started playing trombone in fifth grade, and I struggled with it greatly until I started to take private lessons in 8^th grade. During that time, I was opened to world of possibilities that came with learning how to play a musical instrument, and how I could make my music apart of myself. I also learned more about the world of music and about mental discipline, which helped play into the physical disciplining that I was learning as an athlete. Together, the new skills I learned from being involved in both activities helped enhance my education outside of the class room.

You spend time with people with different experiences/backgrounds than your own.

Let’s face it, high school gets a little clique sometimes. Whether it’s your own close group of friends or a school sports team, it becomes easy to have your own “group” with “inside jokes” that only “your group understands”. It’s not necessarily always a bad thing, but it becomes easy as student to develop a comfort zone that is hard to break out off. I broke this habit when I was in high school because I was involved as both an athlete and musician. I found that while being involved in band and in sports, I encountered a wide variety of people with different habits, and beliefs.

I had to open my mindset to adapt to different social situations and get out of my comfort zone to understand people who were different than me.This, from an educational standpoint, forced me to become more tolerant of conflicting viewpoints and taught me how to co-exist with different groups of people. I knew that every time I went from band rehearsal to football practice, I had to adjust to different mindset every time I wanted to interact with anyone.

It enables you to self-discover.

The last big thing that I found from choosing to do sports and music, was that I had the ability to explore my passions. I could learn new skills, push my mental and physical limits, and act on my emotions. It helped me learn that education was something that isn’t just given to me, but is something that I need to pursue, in order to gain something from it. I am a firm believer in the phrase “You get out what you put in”, and I found that my truest satisfaction lies in the pursuit of my passions. By getting the opportunity to participate in my high school wind ensemble as a band student and being a part of a varsity football team going to state, it helped me gain new experiences. Learning how to adopt to unique situations such as a change in a football play or a change in conductor movement helps with cognitive development and growth, which makes being an athlete or musician beneficial towards education. I also believe that self-independence is an absolutely vital part in education, and that a person's education will only be based on how far that person is willing to push themselves. I feel that students who are interested in sports or in music are people who are interested in taking their learning outside of the classroom, and not just keeping it in the classroom.

Based on these experiences and more, I hope that I made a compelling stance for students to become involved in doing sports or music. While I understand that there is more to the world than those two things, I found that being a band student and athlete makes all the difference in my pursuit of an education.I’ve had to make a lot of sacrifices to be involved in both activities, and have given up a lot of time and money (mostly my parents money, to be honest), to do it. I think that my life has been better because of these experiences, and if it lines up with your interest, I believe your education will be enhanced because of it.