Okay, I decide, three seconds, and then I will run. Three. Two. One. I run down my lane in a fit of coughs, dragging one foot in front of the other until my teacher calls out, “Time!” My fingers intertwine with the chain link fence, supporting myself. Get water. Don’t throw up.

My 100-something degree fever might have been crippling, but I knew if I didn’t come to school there would be another infection pestering me: the thought of finding time to make up my gym class.

Initially, I blamed my misery on Glenbrook North’s physical education make-up policy that “forces” students to sacrifice their free time and health. But, after a conversation with P.E. Instructional Supervisor Robert Pieper, I realized my lazy attitude towards making up P.E. class was the real cause of my misery.

Although making up P.E. class is more physically strenuous than making up math notes, we are given one to two days to make up our math class, but the P.E. department gives us 10 whole days to recover and then make up class.

It is common knowledge among students at GBN that we can make up gym before or during school, but not after.

The P.E. department’s rules, however, give an after-school make-up option to students whose “daily schedule does not allow make-up time” before or during school.

If everyone made up P.E. class after school, the supervisors in the fitness center couldn’t pay attention to us to see that we are doing the fair amount of work.

If we miss an academic class and fail to make up the work, the consequence is simple: not understanding the material for the test. But in P.E. class, where tests are either rare or nonexistent, there must be other ways to hold students accountable for their missed time.

According to Pieper, our school has a make-up policy because the P.E. department is invested in our well-being and wants us to see physical education as a class of equal importance to any other class we take during the day.

Considering the amount of times we have all missed physical education for something as trivial as an orthodontist appointment, even though we haven’t missed math for similar reasons, the policy is completely justified.

We don’t complain to our academic teachers when we have to choose between sniffling through an academic class or making up notes, so why do we fault our gym teachers for the required make-up?

The next time I’m sick and trying to decide between going to school or staying home, I won’t blame the P.E. department for my unwillingness to make up class.