What’s going to happen first, the population moves to Mars or the completion of the yearbook?

The 2021-2022 yearbook is projected to be finished sometime at the beginning of 2023.

Endeavor staff is hard at work to get last year’s yearbook out to the public after past delays due to COVID-19. The setback in production has made the beginning of this year’s yearbook challenging but they are hopeful they can make up time. As the years pass, the goal is to keep cutting down the time of how far behind they are and hopefully get back on a normal yearly schedule.

In March 2020, when COVID-19 hit the states, schools were emptied and journalism rooms were left vacant. The rules were clear: no one was allowed to go to school. On top of this communication challenge, they also faced the fact that they couldn’t access all the assets required to make a yearbook from home. So the yearbook shut down just like the rest of the world. “It just put us entirely behind in our spring delivery book. We do the bulk of our work from March to May. So when kids left in March of 2020, there was no one here to work on the book,” yearbook adviser Larry Steinmetz said, “When we came back the next year, it was sporadic. So we were lucky to get that book done by the end of the year. And that’s just rolled on and now we are trying to play catch up.”

Now well into the ‘22-’23 school year, students and graduated seniors still don’t have their last year’s “Binge-Worthy” themed yearbook. “I’m optimistic that sometime around the turn of the year, around December or January, we can start to wrap things up and get this book out,” Steinmetz said. 

As far as the previous year’s book goes, it’s in the final editing stages where Endeavor staff are looking over the book and going back to catch things they have missed as well as copying their work onto pages. “It’s been a struggle, but we’re doing our best to get through it,” Endeavor Editor-In-Chief, Emmary Davis said. “Having new staffers is complicated, but they’re really great and I think we’ll get it done pretty soon.” 

With the new year means out with old experienced staff and in with new and ready-to-learn students. Joining in the midst of a backlogged yearbook has been a struggle for first-year staffer and sophomore, Lily Ralston. “It’s stressing me out even though it’s not my problem, because I’m not an older staffer. It’s mainly just older staffers that are working on the yearbook right now,” Ralston said.

The production of this year’s book is in full swing despite setbacks. “I’m very excited. I think we’ve been stuck on the old yearbook for so long that it’s really exciting to do something of our own and have a change,” Davis said. The new staffers especially are excited about the new yearbook because they see it as a chance to  make something of their own. 

“We haven’t even chosen a theme for this year’s yearbook,” Ralston said. Steinmetz believes that after the ‘22-’23 book, we will be back on track schedule-wise for getting the product out in a yearly manner. “The flipside is we could push one out fast, but we’d be sacrificing our quality and I’d rather people have their keepsake for the rest of their lives and it’d be a good book than something that we just rushed through.”

It has definitely been a struggle for the staff for a while but here does prove to be some upsides. “The delay is giving me an opportunity to learn and make the yearbook better,” Ralston said.