By Andrin Bar, Editor
STUDENTS: Your yearbook is in danger and only YOU can help!
With the global pandemic, and schooling going to an online format, it is inevitable that certain classes take a hit. Whilst the Poly Spotlight has been fortunate enough to have an editor make it into the class, we have still had to compromise, with meetings taking place in the second hour of class so that the editors who are not in the class still have a chance to join. However, we are the fortunate few. An equally important class has had it a lot worse, with no returning students, an all new staff, and a lack of content. Though they are working to keep up the class, your 2020-21 yearbook might look a lot different. But don’t worry, because there is still a way to make this yearbook special, and to do so, we need YOU!
To begin, we must acknowledge the importance of the school yearbook. A yearbook is a treasure trove of memories. Most people’s grandparents probably still have their signed yearbooks from back when they went to school, and they could tell you all about their classmates, each one leaving a mark on one of their signed pages. Poly has had it’s yearbook every year since the 1910’s, that’s over 100 years worth of tradition. We must not let this tradition fail now! Even in Australia we had yearbooks in highschool, and when we couldn’t sign those, we signed each other’s uniforms, or hats. I still have my signed hat from when I left the land down under. It is memorabilia of a bygone era, and it reminds you of how far you have come. When you leave this highschool, don’t you want to remember the times you had? Because everyone has some memory they want to remember, and for this year, isn’t it worth remembering what we have gone through?
This year has been filled with insanity. For over 250 days, we have had to stay at home, and have had to attend school online. We have had to go through a historic pandemic, have had to re-examine our race relations, and have had to deal with one of the most divided countries of all time. Whether you are republican or democratic, we must admit it has been a historic year. But incredibly, you were here for it all. You were alive while the country spun around you, and you made it through. Is it not worth remembering that? Then there is the fact that your yearbook may, in fact, become a historical document. No, I am not joking. Think about it, we are going through something that will be remembered for centuries, something of equal importance in human history as the World Wars. This pandemic is a world wide event that has fundamentally changed our relationship with information, with each other, and with technology. It has shown us why preparation is important, why scientific investigation is crucial, why life cannot be taken for granted, why we are all equal, why we need to be careful about who we pick for presidency and so much more. You can carry all of that history in your yearbook, and one day, you might even find yourself dusting off its pages, opening its cover, and telling your grandchildren stories from the times you’ve lived through. Is it not comforting to know that you won’t miss even a single detail thanks to your yearbook?
But if you want this historical piece of literature, you are going to need to help create it, because your yearbook is not doing well. The biggest issue is that content gathering is slow and unreliable. Due to students not being in school, there aren’t any sports events or clubs, so what will the yearbook be made up of? Well, since we can’t celebrate sports and school success at the moment, we will have to focus on individual students and their stories during this pandemic. The yearbook will try to cover how students are adapting to the pandemic, and on how they are preparing for the possible return to school. It will be covering individual experiences, and will feature student pieces like poems, personal essays, art pieces, pictures and more. In order to achieve this, however, the yearbook will need student input. Now, what does this mean for you?
Source: HighSchoolNetwork
Let’s address an old criticism. For those who call yearbooks a popularity contest, you are sorely mistaken. It is simply the nature of a yearbook and the way a yearbook works that causes students who are most involved in the school to be featured more prominently, but this is not due to their popularity. Think of it this way, if a student is in the Journal class, the swim team, the basketball team, and 3 different clubs, it is inevitable that this student will be featured more, since there are individual sections for each of those classes, clubs, and sports teams. But this year, there are no clubs, and no sports teams, which means that everyone can be featured in the yearbook regardless of school involvement. All it takes is input.
So, what does the yearbook need from you? Well, it needs your participation. If you have stories, experiences, information, art pieces, writing, pictures, or anything else you think could be in the yearbook, please reach out by either following the poly yearbook instagram (link here), downloading the Yearbook SNAP app on their phones and joining the Spotlight with the code poly2021, or can email Mr Llera at [email protected] with any information or content. Let’s make this yearbook something that we can all be proud of, and something that will remind us that though this year was challenging, we made it through.
For any questions, comments, or concerns, leave a comment under this article or send us a form at http://www.polyspotlight.com/contact