My Yearbook is Ruined

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I am going to graduate from high school tomorrow. Today everyone got their yearbooks and everyone got out of class and went to the gym for a signing party. I was pretty excited, because the yearbook class has been working like crazy on these things, and I was hoping that they’d be pretty cool.

Now some of you might remember a while back I posted a thread about our senior polls. Basically, I was voted “Most Obnoxious Girl,” and, since I didn’t want that printed in the yearbook, was labelled as some kind of touchy bitch. Everyone was like “It’s all in fun” or “It’s not serious, it’s just a senior poll” but I still didn’t want it in the yearbook.

So I got my yearbook and was paging through it, and on the senior poll page there were pictures of people with captions. You know, “Daniel and Ebony: Best Smile” and “Brennan and Theresa: Cutest Couple” and that sort of thing. But there were also some weird blank spaces that were just grey instead of having a picture. And they weren’t just printed in, they were stickers obviously covering something up. My friend Sam pulled one off and it said, “I think that it was all in fun and she talks about herself or how people see her so it’s not like it was something new or a surprise.”

Okay. So they are obviously talking about me. I freaked out and started pulling off the other stickers. One said “Feelings about the removal of the Most Obnoxious Category” and the rest were comments about it. Some of the other ones were things like “I feel that you shouldn’t be so petty to take away the fun of the senior polls” and then there were a couple of others, one about how it wasn’t big deal to have the category taken away and one about how you should be proud of being “most obnoxious.” I couldn’t read those ones all the way because I couldn’t get the stickers off, and then some dumbass scribbled all over them with a pen and wrote “WE LOVE YOU THATS ALL THAT MATTERS,” or some equally stupid nonsense all over them.

So by now I have totally lost it and am crying and everything. People are giving me hugs and stuff and saying “oh, it’s not a big deal” which doesn’t really help. They can minimize it all they want but it’s still there, in the book, in black and white. Where it shouldn’t be, because the yearbook teacher promised it wouldn’t.

So I went to him, and he apologized and said it was an error on the printer’s part, that they’d told the printer to take it out but they didn’t. I was so pissed off. I demanded (and got) a refund, and a new book that didn’t have all the stickers peeled off and stupid stuff written all over it. Then I called my mom and she came and got me. Needless to say, I wasn’t really feeling like staying at the yearbook signing party after that. Anything that anyone wrote would have been like, “Oh, don’t take it seriously,” which isn’t what I want a book full of.

Seriously, did the yearbook staff think that NO ONE in seven grades worth of kids would notice the stickers and pull them off? Did they think I was so stupid that I wouldn’t notice? Did they think to warn me and apologize before just handing them out? No. And the worst part is that anything I could do about it would just get me labelled as even more of a touchy bitch.

So tomorrow I am going to go to school, get people to write in my nice new yearbook, and pretend like it never happened. And then I am going to graduate and never look back at those sorry fuckers.

2

Well, that sucks. I’m sorry. I had a rough time in high school, all the way through. About the only advice I can give is to not hold a grudge, it’s not worth it.

3

That sucks! It’s petty and cruel and the teacher should never have let that get to the printer’s. I’m sorry that this has happened to you. :frowning:

I do think that this…

…is an excellent way to handle it. Enjoy your friends and don’t let the assholes ruin your graduation.

4

I am trying not to hold a grudge, and I think I got most of my being pissed out earlier when I cried. The whole thing was just handled really badly throughout the whole process. And the polls were MONTHS ago–you think they could have made sure about it, but I guess not. I bet this sort of thing won’t happen again next year, though.

5

Well, I suppose this won’t be much consilation, but in the 26 years that I’ve been out of school I can’t remember looking at my yearbook at all. In fact, I have no idea even where it is. In a few years you won’t even care about this.

6

My question is, what the hell kind of yearbook advisor do you have that thinks a poll question like “Most Obnoxious Girl” is a suitable category to include? There’s no way that it can produce anything but a bitter memory to the person who gets chosen.

Did they have “Most Pimply Faced Guy,” “Fattest Girl,” or “Biggest Slut” as well?

It just sucks, and you school administration owed you better.

7

Mirror Image, I’m sorry this happened to you. It’s small consolation I’m sure, but at least you’re graduating and don’t have to be around these jerks any more.

I think this discussion would make for a better MPSIMS thread than a Pit thread, however. I’ll move it over.

8

If I were you I’d give the yearbook editor a swift kick to the nads.

9

In my school’s case, a variant of this, yes. I think her parents sued.

I agree. Mirror, your plan is a good one. I hope what’s left of your senior year and graduation go well.

10

When I graduated 8th grade I was elected “Most Likely to Succeed”. Which really suprised me, as I wasn’t that popular or the brightest. But then Billy was elected class clown, which was no suprise since there was a “Class Bully” or “Future Felon” post. So he cried about it and then we got all these PC ‘nice’ things written about us.

So all the people who bitch and moan about the PC movement and the way people want things to change because ONE person is offended by it, well I guess they are going to pit you Mirror.

I’m not.

My senior year yearbook was capped off by the girl I wanted the most writing that she feared I was gay and I sould return to God.

Greaaat.

Oh and our yearbook editor wrote a nice letter from the editor for the final page of the book. The teacher in charge checked it over and sent it to press.

The teacher changed the spelling on the girls first name from Debbie to Dibbie.

Classic.

11

Mirror Image
Like 99.99999% of the people in this country (maybe the world) I hated my high school days. I was short (still am as a matter of fact - 5’3") and I looked ridiculously young. So, I wasn’t necessarily picked on as much as I was just plain ignored. I was just glad when my high school days were over. I even considered not going to my graduation only for the reason that it was unnecessary. (Hey I’d be a high school graduate whether I showed up or not). Incidentally, 4 years later when I graduated from college, I did NOT attend the ceremony. Do I have any regrets for that decision? None. Now that I look back on my High School Graduation, I am at a loss to describe what an astoundingly unimportant, inconsequential day it was. Needless to say, I have never attended my high school reunions. I know I might sound bitter about the whole thing but I am not.

MirrorImage, you should realize that the people to whom High School will really matter are those whose best days and achievements in life will *end *on graduation day. I tend to think that you will go on to better things.

12

Aw, I’m sorry, Mirror Image. That sucks.

That sad, my story: hated high school, hated many of the people, and the feeling was pretty mutual. Graduated a year ago. Haven’t looked at my yearbook once (mostly beacuse I didn’t even want one and didn’t even get anyone to sign it). Today I’m home for summer break, can think of about four people from high school I want to hang out with. You’ll figure out who your true friends are, and the rest of them will likely fade out of your consciousness quickly.

Also: congratulations on graduating! Welcome to the much better world of “I’m not in high school anymore!”

13

It seems (from both this thread, but especially the other thread) that the advisor was a bit flaky about the whole thing. Advising something like the yearbook or the newspaper may not seem like it takes a lot of work, but it’s a huge responsibility (I speak not from the point of view of an advisor, but a student who has formerly worked extensively on both). Clearly this guy was not prepared, and let the students do whatever they wanted (which doesn’t work most of the time).

Also, depending on the time frame of the whole thing, these books (at least in our high school’s case) go to press MONTHS before they come back. I know ours didn’t include prom in the main book, but in a supplement that came out the next fall, for example. They might have been rushed anyway and then asked to take this whole poll out and find something to fill the space or something. Sometimes people don’t realize that it takes a considerable amount of time for printing and sometimes events between press time and distribution time can lead to unplesantness. That’s not, perhaps, what happened this time, and either way it’s absolutely no excuse, but it might be one reason.

Not that any of that helps you, of course. I’m just three years out of high school, and about as nostalgic as they come, really. I’ve been back many times over the past three years for concerts and plays and sports and whatnot, but I think I’ve looked at my yearbook(s) maybe three or four times, and then usually only to look up someone a friend mentioned (“Remember what’s-her-face?” “I don’t know…hang on a sec,” looks up the name, sees the picture “Oh, yeah, she was in English with me Junior year,” or whatever).

I figure, in two or five or ten years when it’s completely lost all emotion attachment for you, it just becomes one of those things that distinguishes your high school experience from everyone else’s. You’ll be alright.

14

I can’t believe the yearbook advisor allowed the category in the first place. That is pretty messed up. Personally, I was a total outcast in high school. I didn’t have even one friend. I would not have been surprised to have been given an unflattering category myself. Luckily, my high school didn’t have those kinds of polls.

I didn’t bother going to my graduation ceremony. I was just happy to escape. College was so much better. Nowadays I’m feeling very good about the direction my life has taken since high school. Many aspects of my life has improved immensely. For example, now I actually have friends, and I’m about to start medical school, finally fulfilling the dream of becoming a doctor that I had even back in high school despite everyone else’s skepticism.
I am sure that your best days are still ahead of you too. :slight_smile:

15

I know it doesn’t matter to you now, but in ten years you aren’t even going to remember what the place looks like. Or, to use a more careworn phrase, this too shall pass.

Meanwhile, new and more profound tragedies will impinge themselves upon your life. I tossed my sophomore yearbook (the last one I purchased) years ago and haven’t missed it since.

Good luck to you.

Stranger

16

The yearbook editor is a total flake. I have art class every day, right next to his room, and he couldn’t wander over to give me a heads up? Ugh.

And I do think the page must have been sent to the printer ages ago, because the senior poll nonsense was MONTHS ago, and seriously, what did they think putting a sticker over it was going to accomplish? Everyone who notices it is going to peel it off, that’s just how people work.

17

I don’t understand - the stickers were covering up other peoples’ comments on you being voted Most Obnoxious?

I also agree that that was not a nice category for a high school yearbook. Is there anybody on your school’s yearbook committee who might have a clue that teenagers might be just a little tetchy about being insulted? Hell, I would be insulted now, and I’m 38. Obnoxious, indeed. That would make me want to really show them obnoxious.

18

What they did was lame, but I promise you’ll think nothing of it in a few years.

I didn’t attend my high school graduation. I was living in a small town, and I was only there for 3 years so I was never really accepted by the born and raised locals. I never felt any attachment to that school or the people I sat in class with, so I didn’t see any reason in showing up. My parents were a little annoyed, but I was insistant on it. I told them I’d attend my college graduation to make up for it.

19

I think what happened is that people wrote comments on the stickers that were in their books and then stuck them on hers. Is that right, Mirror Image?

Mirror Image, I am so profoundly sorry that this happened to you. I really want to be able to give you an actual hug to show you how sorry I am that your school’s yearbook advisor is that incompetent and insensitive. I’m angry on your behalf.

I’m not some creepy Internet person – I was an editor of my senior yearbook and staff for my junior one, and I can tell you how much we struggled with keeping things clean and positive. There were days when I wanted to write picture captions that said, “This guy is an annoying shit who enjoys fellating rhinoceroses,” but I refrained. Mostly because I doubted the guy in question knew what fellatio meant (Is that an Italian car? Yes, the new Lamborghini Fellatio.), but also because it’s just dumb. It’s amazingly frustrating for me that this teacher couldn’t do that and couldn’t get his staff to do the same.

We did the superlative awards, and we ran the results by the winners. If they didn’t like them, then we put the runner-up in their place. No hassles. For the record, we didn’t have the “Most Obnoxious” category. They generally tied in with the theme of the yearbook. We had things like “Most likely to crash the system” paired with “Most likely to take a byte out of crime.” (It was a computer themed yearbook.) It was all very tongue-in-cheek and campy. The advisor for your school sounds like he’s stuck in 1965. “These are the categories we run because we’ve always run them!”

Timeframe-wise, we generally sent the last proofs back in early March and didn’t get the books back until late May. Senior year we had to delay releasing the books because Jostens messed up a page by dropping the wrong picture into the page. We did use stickers, but the right picture was printed on the stickers and Jostens paid for the mistake. Just putting a gray square over the picture WAS NOT an option.

Sorry if I sound like Tracy from Election. Knowing how much work goes into one of these things and then seeing some inattentive guy completely fux0r it for you makes me . . . angry. It’ll seem like nothing very soon, and you’re taking the high road, but, god, what a numbnuts.

20

I interpreted it as the printer covered the stuff about the obnoxious award and people’s reactions to it with the gray stickers. She pulled hers off and found out that the award was still printed when she was told it would be removed, and on top of that, they had interviewed people about how they felt about her asking that the award be removed. Later, someone scribbled in her book over the stickers she couldn’t remove. I could be wrong, it’s been known to happen, especially at 3 a.m.

One of my yearbooks (can’t remember which year) has all of the club pictures’ captions blacked out. Complete solid black squares over where the captions were supposed to be. Printer’s error (or at least that’s what they told us). So if you want to know who was in Band that year, you have to guess. Obviously not as bad, since it wasn’t detrimental to one person in particular.