Have you ever noticed that school yearbooks are like vortexes? Be honest, yearbooks are not that interesting, unless perhaps you have been out of school for 30+ years and you are reminiscing and laughing at old hairstyle faux pas. But otherwise a yearbook is kind of like a really long, black and white magazine with lesser-known high school celebritites.
No offense to yearbook editors/writers/photographers, I think that your work is very well done. I just think that a yearbook is more of a formality that needs to be created for records and out of tradition. Perhaps all the yearbook staff youth of America would rather work on another journalistic endeavor, given the option. I'm just saying, school papers are usually a little more entertaining, and if nothing else they have a crossword to pass the time. Maybe they should add crosswords to yearbooks to spice them up...
But you pick up a yearbook to look up one thing, usually, like when you're hanging out with some girlfriends and you say "What was that guy's name, who wore flannel and smoked during lunch?" and then go on a search party in the hard bound pages. Today yearbooks are even more advanced, plus student bodies are huge and require more sophisticated organization than they used to, so the books often have an index. So if you can remember that Mr. Flannel played the bassoon, then you can look up the band, flip to page 132, and Bam, you've found him. Done, close the book, right?
Wrong.
Vortex. Before you know it you're reading about the homecoming queen, the speech team, looking at pictures of kids not even in your class; after a couple of hours of page turning you know some of their names, recognize them on another page. Then you look at the clock and realize you've missed your lunch date. Don't agree with me? Go pick up your eighth grade yearbook right now. Here is your assignment: Find the page with your middle school crush. And then immediately close the book and walk away for a full 24 hours. Ten bucks says you can't do it. And don't hold me responsible if you don't get a lot of sleep tonight--it was your fault for assuming you could prove me wrong.
Haha. I should show you my school's yearbook sometime. It's incredibly small, includes K-12, and if you were even slightly involved in school activities, there's a good chance you'll be on every other page. :) Completely agree about the vortex though. Even our tiny yearbook can suck me in.
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