The school year is often too full of academic and social obligations to fit anything else in.

That's why summer is the perfect time to catch up on the other activities and aspects of life that are neglected during the rest of the year. If used wisely, the time between May and August can be an invaluable period of self improvement. However, it can also be a time to reach inhuman levels of laziness, previously unknown to all but sloths, sea cucumbers, and Bruno Mars.

1. Getting A Job. With a few months of downtime, it's a good idea to join the workforce and make a little extra money. This will not only help you earn some cash to spend during the school year, but also it will look good on a resume when applying for post-grad work...or at least it would have if I had actually gotten one. Hopefully my future employers will be equally impressed by the fact that I managed to watch 5 seasons of 30 Rock with the time that I would have spent working.

2. Hanging Out With Friends. Now is the perfect time to hang with friends, without worrying about the pressures of schoolwork. For those of us who go out-of-state, it can also be the perfect chance to reconnect with old friends who you haven't seen in a while...Or you can become a reclusive shut-in and rarely leave the house. So many options!

3. Reading Books. With so much assigned reading during the school year, many students have difficulty finding the time to read books on their own. Summertime is really the best time for pleasure reading. This is exactly why I went onto Amazon, bought the first book of the Game of Thrones series...and then left it under my bed for a month.

4. Getting Swoll. The weather is perfect to go outside and run. The local gym is full of complete strangers, just as it should be. All of my usual obligations and excuses are out of the way. It's hard to think of a single good reason not to go out and get in shape...However, I must have found one, although I'm still not sure what it was.

5. Learning a Second Language. Je n'ai pas fait non plus.