may take my picture.

when i was in junior high and high school, one of my favorite days of the school year was in may: yearbook day. i'd prepare for this day-- i would buy a special yearbook-signing pen, i would usually pick out a wise quotation to write in people's yearbooks (i.e. "remember to see the flower in the weeds," "those who stand for nothing fall for anything," etc.), and i would practice my signature and determine which AIM screenname i wanted to share with others. i mostly looked forward to yearbook day because i loved seeing the past year captured in candid photos-- i liked learning about events i didn't go to and reading random interviews with people i admired-- and in the posed headshots where i could giggle over pictures of my crush or find a small bit of satisfaction that super-cute x looks terrible in her school photo.

mind you, this was waaaaay before facebook or myspace. i couldn't browse through profile pictures or mobile uplaods. there was only a yearbook photo, tiny and in black-and-white. i couldn't click on "albums" and see y's volleyball championship pictures and team photos. i couldn't write on someone's wall and leave a "hey! call me!" comment; i waited with giddy excitement to read what z wrote in my yearbook-- did he think i'm a "cool chick" and "super smart" and would we "hang out this summer"? i couldn't send xyz a friend request and hope that a tenuous connection would be established and maintained through face/space; i anxiously approached other kids and asked them to sign my yearbook and hoped their message to me would be just as nice as mine to them.

my friends and i would reserve pages so we could write heartfelt messages to each other. "SAVE FOR ANDREA" would be scrawled across the top of a page, and i'd ponder how i could possibly encapsulate the meaning of high school friendship on a glossy yearbook page... but i did. back then, my friends and i didn't spend hours texting back and forth; we would sum up our friendship and love for each other in lengthy yearbook signings. these messages are far more permanent and meaningful than the thousands of texts and dozens of one-line myspace comments.

i wonder if the current generation of high school students appreciates looking through their yearbooks as much as i did. i wonder if they will someday laugh at the hairstyles and clothing worn in their youth in photos that their entire class can peruse through at any moment. i wonder if the club pages, faculty photos, and indexes create a swarm of butterflies in their stomachs when someone hands them a hardbound book with the academic year printed on the front. i wonder if yearbooks will be phased out and replaced with social technology lifebooks. tonight, i'll look at my yearbooks with a little more appreciation and nostalgia.