Piecing it Together

The 2016-17 yearbook.

The 2016-17 yearbook.

The pieces are falling into place.

The 2016-17 yearbooks have been distributed out to students and the feedback is in.

Getting a yearbook is something that most all students enjoy. For underclassmen, it’s a way to look back on your year and bring back those memories that you had forgotten over the summer. For seniors, it’s a way to remember all those you went to high school with as you move on to the next chapter of your life. But what goes into making these books that can mean so much to so many people? How much work is put into this book?

A lot, to put it simply. The entire yearbook class works pretty much day in and day out organizing, writing, taking pictures, or whatever they need to do to get things done to meet their tight deadlines. “It is tough sometimes to get everything done in time,” said current yearbook staff member Zak Perdew. “you have to pay attention to what’s going on and stay focused.”

Larry Steinmetz has advised the class of yearbook for 13 years, so what makes this one different? “I feel like our depth of coverage has improved significantly… We covered a lot of things and nobody was left out,” said Steinmetz.

The editor in chief of this yearbook was, now a freshman in college, Grace Jackson. She and the rest of the yearbook staff were able to organize this book and get it out in time to meet the deadlines.“(The staff) made things less stressful for me. Everybody was willing to do their part and worked very hard.” The theme of this yearbook was “Piecing Together Y(our) Story”.You could guess this throughout the book as you see all the puzzle pieces.

Of course, there were some bumps in the road piecing this book together. This yearbook was unique with the cover having a detachable puzzle piece off the cover. This choice was made with good intentions, but some people feel that the piece can be easy to lose and some students simply received theirs without one. There also was a controversy of a faked interview, as a yearbook staffer simply just quoted a student without talking to them. “It definitely promoted trust issues between our staff, we apologized to the student and the staff member is no longer with us.” said Steinmetz.

Even with those setbacks, it’s definitely hard to find much else wrong with this book. After asking 50 students who received a yearbook, 47 said that they were happy with it in some form of words. Sam Priddy said “I feel like they did a good job with it last year, I liked it.” A lot of hard work goes into these big books of memories, and it’s work well spent, to say the least.