A Year of Memories Contained in a Book

One day every year students walk away from with shiny, hardcover books that have hundreds of pages in color and plenty of space for signatures. That is the day yearbook are handed out.

Every year the distribution of yearbooks sneaks up on me. Yearbook distribution means the end of school, and it’s not just the idea that we’re getting toward the end of school. Yearbooks mean there are four days left in the school year, three of which are minimum days spent taking finals.

At Dublin High, yearbooks were distributed before school Friday for the seniors and after school for the juniors, sophomores and freshmen. Everybody looks forward to seeing the yearbook unveiled, and enjoys flipping through the pages looking for pictures of themselves and their friends. Some people, like me, even take the time to hunt down every Sharpie they can find for yearbook signing.

On another level, yearbooks represent the memories of each person’s individual year. Pictures and articles in the yearbook mean different things to each student, and heartfelt signatures that friends leave one another are permanent. The end of school can be lighthearted and fun as students sign yearbooks and prepare for summer. But it can be emotional for many people, especially seniors, who will have their yearbooks to look back on their high-school years.

So when the time for yearbooks rolls around, it’s no surprise that it catches many people off guard. With less than a week until graduation, it really is the end of school. Among the stress of finals and surviving the last week of school, especially with the weather making it feel more like January than June, yearbooks remind everybody of the eventful year that has passed.

The yearbooks are especially meaningful for seniors who are leaving Dublin High, because they represent four years of their lives.

Senior Celina Pulenskey, who was on yearbook staff this school year, said, “The process of working on the yearbook can be really stressful but getting to see the books when they come in and how amazing they look makes it all worth it.”

On the opposite end of the spectrum, yearbooks are a new experience for freshmen. Jennifer Strasser is ready for her first Dublin High yearbook.

"I’m pretty excited that I will have a different yearbook than middle school,” she said.  “It's better because older people worked on it and it covers more events from the school."

A lot of work definitely went into making the yearbook, as Celina said, but every year they are well made and gorgeous. I know I am not the only one ready to walk away with a brand new yearbook.