Physical education is a class that, if given the option, many would choose to opt out on. Who would want to run the Pacer? Who cares if you can do forty sit-ups in sixty minutes? The answer, ladies and gentlemen, is nobody. Perhaps the more athletically inclined population might enjoy the physical challenges that gym brings, but I don’t. Frankly, I’ve never been able to wrap my head around why gym is even a required class.

Now, after that little introduction, picture this: it’s a gray, cloudy day, the sort that conjures a feeling of inexplicable boredom. All of a sudden, a ray of sunlight breaks through the clouds. It gets bigger and bigger until there’s a sizable hole in the dense gray clouds, a hole through which an angel descends.

It’s glowing so bright you can barely look at it. To your surprise, the angel seems to be making its way towards you – and it’s holding something in its hands. Finally, the angel lands right in front of you and unrolls a scroll. There are only two words written upon the scroll: Summer Gym. The answer to all your troubles.

Okay, so maybe I exaggerated a little bit. The angel wasn’t glowing that brightly…

From my perspective (as an unfit, lazy, unmotivated tub of lard), summer gym is one of the best necessary evils ever created. “What are the pros?” you may ask. Well, you get gym over with, you get an open slot in your schedule for the school year, and the odds are strong that your fellow summer-gym-disciples aren’t all that athletic either. The “evil” part of the phrase “necessary evil” is that approximately half of your summer is ruined because of this class.

To really hammer the last nail into this coffin, take a look at what you can do with a free period during the school year. You could take a class that you’re actually interested in, or you could take a study hall to help your homework load. Take a hint, freshmen. I don’t consider myself an endless reservoir of good advice, but if you want to make your sophomore year schedule as fun as possible, take summer gym. If you can get in, that is. Spots fill up fast in that class.