It's spring semester and you're in your advising appointment when your adviser poses the dreaded question: "Are you planning on taking any summer courses?" If you have ever answered yes, you know the struggle that is summer session.

It seems like a good idea: Get a class out of the way, take a lighter course load during the regular school year, focus on only one or two classes at a time, meet a prerequisite for a course in your major or knock out a gen ed or two. So you think, Why not? You register for that class and unknowingly sign away your life.

If you had thought that it wasn't going to be too stressful, and you could still slack off and go out as much as you did last summer, you might be wrong. You have tests and homework and quizzes to study for after work, while your friends don't have anything to prep for. And even though it's only one class, it's six weeks of what is normally taught in 16, and that alone is enough to kick your butt. Then throw in the fact that there are a limited number of sections due to lower summer enrollment, and you find yourself with an 8 a.m. class every day of the week.

That's not to mention the cost. You don't think about it, but maybe taking 18 hours instead of 15 would have made more sense since you're paying the same fall tuition either way, but summer is per credit hour.

Though when you do have free time, you find that the time you're spending on summer classes is time that is best spent learning, even though you might want to sleep in past 7 a.m. most days, or not feel ready to go to bed before midnight.

And even though it's hard, your professors understand that it's impossible to master a semester's worth of work in a matter of a few weeks, so they stress the important things and grade on the basics. Though on syllabus day, the course seems impossible, it's certainly do-able.

The feeling of relief when those six weeks are over? It's just as great as the one after fall and spring finals, except it comes a lot sooner. And let me just say, it feels nicer when its nice outside.

You're done. It only took you six weeks, and now that class is checked off your list, you're ready to move on. So even though it was a rough go at first, and you weren't too thrilled to be spending your money to give up your time, you got quite a bit out of it. And when fall rolls around and your friends are struggling through the same material, you'll be resting easy on your lighter schedule and ready to help them with your summer wisdom.

No pain, no gain, right?