You may think you’re not on the creative side or maybe you lack organization skills, but you should know that most people that have joined yearbook felt the same way. It’s safe to say that you wouldn’t be alone because past members will tell you that you learn these skills and much more as the year goes on. So join for the right reasons: it’s a lot of fun, you meet a lot of people, learn a lot about the school and make new friends. Taking pictures at different events that are going on around the school and helping to design different pages that are in the yearbook are some added perks.

Parents can get involved also. When their child is a senior they can buy a graduate ad for the yearbook. There are different sizes and costs to choose from. For more information check your email. The fun part is that they can submit a picture or a saying that is printed as a memory of their senior year. “They’re going to be embarrassed by it. But they’re also later going to be actually kind of proud that they were one of the people who had the extra picture in the yearbook because of you,” yearbook adviser Matthew Smith said.

On a side note, it’s time to check if you ordered your yearbook and if not you should. February is the last month you can buy your yearbook. “Check the wearecardinals.com or you can go by the main office and tell them you want to buy one,” Smith said.

There is also a yearbook camp at the end of every summer for training and bonding. “The goal is that everyone knows how to use our equipment and the programs,” Smith said. It is a two-day camp that helps everyone bond together through activities and starting to some of the equipment. The hope is that at the end of camp you are working well together as a team and ready once school starts.

How do they figure out the theme each year? By joining the yearbook you become part of the decision. At first it starts out brainstorming theme ideas by talking about it with the group, writing things down on the white board, and looking at past yearbooks. Within a day or two we usually have a general concept decided on but it takes a couple weeks to tweak and detail out the final idea. “It’s very involved and pressure to have it be cool. It feels more daunting at first when you have nothing, and your goal is to have an awesome idea after some talking,” Smith said.

Designing the pages of the yearbook is very interesting and well organized. “[We] divide the yearbook by season, like summer, fall, winter, spring and within each that we make sure to focus a certain number of pages on sports, a certain number of pages on student life, and a certain number of pages on academics so we show people in classes and what’s happening at the school, ” Smith said. Colors, fonts, format and the overall look is decided on after the theme. Kind of like writing a story for English class, you start with the theme, add in support for your theme and then add fun pictures of your friends, groups and sports for illustration.

Remember how we mentioned that at camp you get to learn how to use the equipment? Like a camera? Cool, right!? Now that school is in full swing, you get to assign yourself to some events and take a school camera to it and take some pictures. Yearbook tries to cover a little bit of everything, which in short means that you can take a ton of pictures. “Students are assigned to get at least one game or event that is going around the school,” Smith said.

You can join or just ask questions about joining yearbook by watching your emails or visiting Mr Smith in Room 2610. “Yearbook is cool. and they have a way to express yourself. You have a way to play around with the equipment, creating something fun that lots of people are going to see.”