20 years from now, you’ll be packing your things getting ready to move out and perhaps stumble upon your old high school yearbook. The good old days they say, stressing over homework and partying every weekend all while maintaining that 4.0 GPA. Yearbooks are a must-have, capturing memories frozen in time forever.

Yearbooks go a long way back, first appearing in the 17th century when students created scrapbooks containing hairclips, cut-out newspaper articles, and dried flowers to remember the year. The first published yearbook came from Yale University in 1806 called Profiles of Part of the Class Graduated at Yale College, which interestingly enough, printed silhouettes of students instead of pictures, since photography wasn’t around during this time. Unfortunately, there are no existing copies of the book today. However, yearbooks continued to gain popularity across the US with the growth of innovative technology during the computer age, especially digital photography.

Beginning Wednesday of last week, yearbooks were distributed to all students, starting with our graduating class of 2022. This year’s yearbook contained a grand total of 220 pages filled with everything Briar Woods. With a single glance, one can tell the heavy book took a lot of effort to create. So, who actually makes the yearbook?

The answer is none other than the students themselves!

Briar Woods’ vast curriculum offers yearbook as a class open to anyone interested. Editors-in-chief Zainab Alsahrawi and Ian Stummer lead the yearbook staff, also known as the flight team. Students are assigned specific topics to take pictures including sports, clubs, classes, pep rallies, and even shoes. Class time is used to take interviews and pictures. Every month, pictures for assigned topics are due and are then carefully placed into Yearbook Avenue, the yearbook website. They are provided a hefty budget as well as Nikon professional cameras exclusive to the yearbook staff. All pages are reviewed by the editors and Ms. Mai, the teacher.

Isabelle Lee, a sophomore at Briar Woods, offered her expertise around yearbook production: “Don’t procrastinate on pictures, you will regret it.” She plans to continue her membership on the yearbook staff for the duration of her high school career and is looking forward to what the future holds.

Yearbooks carry 188 days’ worth of memories in a single book. It contains a school’s values and traditions, as well as the accomplishments of its students. If you would like to be a part of the amazing staff that is the flight team, talk to your counselor today and sign up for yearbook! The deadline to change course requests is June 15th, 2022, the last day of school.  It is the picture-perfect way to spend what is known as the greatest years of your life.