The dust has barely settled on the spring semester and already I am looking ahead to the summer session. I'm a junior in college and each year, I've taken summer classes. Being stuck for three hours, four days a week, for five weeks in a classroom that may or may not be air conditioned might not seem like everybody's cup of tea, but that's just the pessimistic view. Summer classes can be beneficial for a number of reasons.

For one, they're a good way to get the pre-req out of the way for the class you want to take in the fall. If you're a matriculated college student who takes just one or two classes every summer, it could be a way to graduate a semester earlier. Or, just take a class or two to gain some personal knowledge and enrichment.

You don't have to take it by yourself, either. Taking a summer class at your local community college with a friend when one or both of you regularly goes away is a great way to reconnect with them now that you're both home. Obviously, I don't mean during the class, but you could study together, carpool, get lunch together and do other fun activities afterwards.

Or, conversely, you can end up making a new friend or friends. You might take a class and meet someone whom you get along with really well or whom you can relate to. Sure, this can happen any semester, but an extra chance to make friends never killed anybody.

Summer classes tend to be about five weeks in length, as opposed to 15-16 weeks in the fall and spring. Because of the class's short duration, most professors drop certain assignments like big projects or final papers. (Most, but not all. Last year I had a summer class where a whopping 95 percent of the grade was based on a 30-ish (!!!) page final project. Take comfort in the fact that this is a very rare occurrence.) So if you frequently get a case of the lazies like me, a summer class might just be the class for you.

Like I said, I've taken at least two summer classes every year so far, and I've enjoyed every one of them (yes, even the one with the monster project). This year, give it a try. Take a summer class. You might just thank me.