text: The next reason our school should continue to require extracurricular activities is because it helps students build new friendships. It is very important to have good friends throughout middle school and high school because you will need people to talk to about things, support you in situations. and even just to share laughter and spend time with that aren't your family. For example, when i started middle school my parents made me try out for track, which i really didn't want to do. After a few days, i had made so many great friends that i could not only hang out with at practice, but i also then knew them at school. To this day, i am even better friends with those people, therefore, i can't imagine what my life would be like if i hadn't tried out for track. Another example is my older brother made his closest friends, Generic_Name and Generic_Name, in football when he first started high school. Before that, he didn't have many good friends; football really changed his life in that way, for i never see him happier than when he is with them.