It’s the end of the semester and the rush is on.Students scramble to get ready, working hard night and day.It is absolutely necessary to be prepared. But no, not for exams; this is way more important. This is summer.While looking good in time for summer is present somewhere in most people’s minds this time of year, for some, it becomes an obsession and it’s important to know where to draw the line.For some students, looking good in that itty-bitty teeny-tiny bathing suit is the key to hot summer fun, and for many, looking good starts with a base tan.Samantha Jo Brown, a sophomore in agricultural education, has worked at Palm Beach Tan, a tanning salon chain with local stores, for about three months. She started working there around the beginning of peak season. Brown said there has “definitely” been an increase in tanners in the past few months. “Monday I worked and we saw 391 clients that day and that’s the most we’ve had all year,” she said.A lot of its clients are college students, and during the winter, she said not many people tan because there isn’t really a need for it. When the prospect of warm weather rolls around, however, the number of tanners spikes. And it’s not just the conventional female clients, according to Brown.”It’s not just girls; it’s guys, too,” she said.Brown said there’s about a 50-percent ratio of guys to girls, and the male clients don’t have any qualms with using the tanning bed.”I don’t really think guys have a problem with tanning anymore,” she said. “They don’t really seem ashamed of it or anything.”And while extensive exposure to ultraviolet rays can lead to serious problems — one of the biggest being skin cancer — Brown said there are ways to protect your skin while in the tanning bed, even help it.She said her salon offers different levels of tanning and higher quality beds that use UVA rays. These UVA rays are supposed to be less harmful than UVB rays because they don’t burn the skin. To protect the skin, a variety of tanning lotions, which replenish the nutrients tanning damages, are available. There is even a UV-free spray tan.”It just depends on what the consumer is willing to pay to get a good tan,” Brown said.Skin isn’t the only body part on people’s minds as summer nears, though. As the number of people running laps on Carmichael’s bright blue track increases, it becomes obvious that being fit is also a big concern.Leigh Ann Yeager, a fitness coordinator at Carmichael Gym, said the push she sees at the end of the semester is similar to the push seen right before spring break. “It’s mostly girls, but there’s also an increase in guys in, like, the ABsolutions classes,” she said.But there is a thin line between exercising at a healthy level and going overboard, especially with extensive weight lifting and muscle building. Some people have a tendency to fall into steroid use for quick, drastic results. However, Yeager said she hasn’t seen that problem at N.C. State. According to Yeager, students in general are healthy in their methods of working out.”Most people’s definitions of overdoing it is about what they should be doing anyway,” she said. “If we see something unhealthy, we look for red flags, but I haven’t experienced that here.”And while it is always important to eat right and exercise regularly, Marianne Turnbull, director of health promotion at Student Health Services, said being healthy goes beyond looking good — it means feeling good, too.”The best thing is to think about what it means to have a good body image,” she said.She described the image culture paints as a “box” that people try to fit themselves into, and said as long as most people are trying to conform to that image they won’t be happy.Many things factor into body shape and Turnbull pointed to hereditary traits as the foremost factor.”You have to work with what you have and realize there are a lot of people just like you,” she said.Turnbull said the health center sees many cases of students overdoing it, whether it is full-blown eating disorders or just restricted eating — consisting of a periodic binge-and-purge system. She said this is the worst way to handle weight loss, because it has lasting effects, hurting calcium intake and metabolism for a lifetime. According to Turnbull, being healthy is a day-in, day-out matter of exercising and eating right.”Everybody thinks it’s rocket science, but in reality it’s not,” she said.While men have insecurity issues too, Turnbull said she has found it to be a bigger problem with women.”Guys are able to relax a little bit more about what they look like,” she said.Turnbull said she feels the fashion industry doesn’t help the battle for better body image either, because it too puts extra pressure on women; it also fosters in women a misconception of what men are attracted to. She feels like this pushes the problem even further and said if one was to actually talk to guys about what they like in a girl, it isn’t like what the media portray at all.The focus, Turnbull said, should be on enjoying one’s self and not stressing out over a few gained inches or pounds.”Have a good time in life,” she said.The winter months give people a chance to let loose and enjoy the layers of clothing that hide any imperfections, whether real or imagined. But as summer creeps up, unnecessary and unhealthy ideals of perfection can do massive amounts of damage to a person’s self-esteem. In the end, though, it all boils down to being happy in one’s own skin, whether golden brown or not.