During these challenging times when you’re forced to be
apart from your classmates and teammates, it can be your photos from throughout
the year that serve as a visual reminder of the value of friendship and
community. When captured spontaneously
or creatively; the joy of togetherness, the pleasure of companionship, or even
the heartbreak of shared loss, are forever recorded and can be drawn upon to maintain
or restore the camaraderie that gets lost in the absence of sociability. The
ability to look at pictures of you and your friends laughing, smiling, or
crying together can bring back the same feeling of closeness you had in that
moment.
Which is why at no time has the yearbook, and the lasting visual
record it becomes, been more important. Especially
for the Class of 2020 Seniors. They’re disappointed
knowing the senior trip they’ve been looking forward to all year has been
cancelled. They’re disheartened,
realizing they’ve lost the opportunity to play their last year of spring sports.
They’re discouraged about the chances of
actually having a senior prom. And they’re nervous that they may not be able to
walk across the stage in front of their friends and family and feel the pride
of receiving the diploma they’ve worked so hard for. But they’re also hopeful and resilient,
knowing that they still have each other, and their teachers and coaches, as a
support system. And while your yearbook
staff may be experiencing these same feelings, it’s your responsibility as the
school historians to fit each piece of the story together.
In addition to the difficulties presented by isolation
and at home learning, many yearbook editors and advisors right now are struggling
to fill pages left empty by these delayed or cancelled events. Some have opted to add sections about the
impact of the virus and school closures on the student body and the community. Including trying to visually depict social distancing and it's effects.
Others have decided to sift through and use sports photos from last spring of athletes that are still on the teams.
Both are great solutions. But in addition to those, what I suggest is to draw from your reserves of images that celebrate and remind everyone that there is strength in numbers. Images that show people together and that bring people together. Images that say, “while we may be physically divided, we are emotionally united.”
Because whether you’re an Eagle, Panther, Rebel, Bulldog, Knight or Patriot…whether you bleed Orange, Red, Green, or Colonial Blue…the experiences you’ve shared and the bonds that form in your schools and on your athletic fields last a lifetime. So, while you can’t be together in person, you ARE together and will get through this together in spirit!
