Years ago, too many to count, I was recruited to be our school’s yearbook person. I didn’t know what I was doing and after 1 year, the principals switched yearbook companies on me. I had barely made it through the year before and now I was going to have to learn a whole new software and people. (Spoiler alert – it was a great decision and led me here!) I should tell you now that I’m not the type that does a little bit of the yearbook each month or along the way, no I’m a wait and do it all at once over a month – well not the organization of it or gathering and planning of photos, but the actual putting it together and designing it, I did that in about a month of long days and nights – it flows better for me that way. If I spread it out, I lose my train of thought and creativity flow is very choppy.
Back to my point, I continued doing the yearbook for 13 years for that particular school building, as well as others in our district. I had a handful of people who would send me photos or go get some for me when I needed them. I had one person, Kary, who was my seasonal bff for many of those years and many of those books. I talked her into helping me out when I got ambitious and decided I would take on 3 yearbooks in the same year (that happened for a few years) and many years when either one of us didn’t have a student in one of those schools. She was always up for the challenge and supported my crazy ideas. She and I balanced each other out in all the tasks of making a yearbook and she always let me lead with my sometimes outlandish ideas and she understood my creative vision and always made it better! The year or two I tried to not ask for her help since her kids were older and no longer in the elementary building, I broke down and begged for her help, because I couldn’t decide which pictures to use and making collages and my overthinking about borders had me stressed and overwhelmed, especially since I was overthinking about so many other details. She always jumped in and helped me out and boy do I love her for that!
Funny thing is that out of my 5 kids and her 3 kids only our oldest were the same age, but they didn’t really know each other, and our other kids weren’t in the same activities, and we even lived 2 minutes from each other, but with the busy schedules of our families, we didn’t see each other much the rest of the year. An occasional message here or there about a yearbook idea or theme we saw. However, when it was yearbook time, it was like no time had passed, and we quickly caught up and jumped right back into our groove.
Our kids have grown and we no longer do yearbooks, but now and then we send each other funny yearbook related memes or news stories about yearbook mishaps or creative staff pages. I made better yearbooks because of her and she let me be the “yearbook lady” and she quietly did some of the parts I find so hard, choosing the best pictures for collages and not overthinking all the little details no one else would even notice. I miss my yearbook bff and making yearbooks with her. I love looking at the books we created together – there’s a story and a piece of us in each of our yearbooks.
This is a great connection for sure. It is good to have someone to bounce off, especially in those overthinking moments! My JEA mentor was that for me. It was so good to vent, ask questions, or bounce off ideas. Because she was more experienced than I was, she had great resources and connections. Yes, it is important to find a Yearbook Buddy!!