P.E. Stands for Public Embarrassment

I caught myself staring at the glistening constellations of sweat droplets on the foreheads of students exhausted after the considerable amount of excruciating workout. The sun was approaching the peak of its everlasting crescent among the sky; its light ruthlessly beats down on you like it wanted your money. The striking assaults of its rays encouraged the inevitable arrival of sunburns. Most people would use this opportunity to embrace and bathe in the glorious resplendence of the sunlight; not me. I didn’t expect my first high school experience to resemble a military camp, although I anticipated the encounter of several hardships and difficulties. The track and field arena looked even more intimidating with students dispersed throughout the place. What do you get when you gather hundreds of aggressive students and deposit them in an inferno-like field ridden by flesh-feasting mosquitoes? My summer school experience in a nutshell. The track and field place, the source of my suffering and mortification, had created long-lasting memories that cause me to tremble and cringe whenever I am reminded of this experience. It was July; the temperatures soared. I could practically see the waves of heat rising from the sizzling pavement as I became aware of the thick, prickly grass tickling my ankles. The weather this month consisted of an alternating pattern between evenings of heavy rainfalls, which created moist, humid air that was perfect for drawing in large populations of bugs, and days of scorching drought. The lively gossip lingering in the air like smoke infiltrating a casino was reduced to discrete murmured whispers when the teachers called everyone to line up in alphabetical order. I was neither physically nor mentally prepa...

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...e me feel futilely inferior because I wasn’t athletically talented, and completely lacked any skills involving fitness. They told me that the only way to be successful in life is to be exceptionally well-rounded in every single subject, which included extra-curricular activities. I felt awful about myself. Howbeit, I was proud of myself for passing, showing up for class every single day, and not giving up in spite of discouraging classmates. From the point of view of a student recovering from social anxiety, who is also achingly deficient when it comes to sports, I truly believe that something should be done to change the way that students are accepted and graded based on their athletic performance. An unknown person on a social networking site once made a popular statement that said, “P.E. doesn’t stand for physical education, it stands for public embarrassment.”