Eunchan Lee, Week 14 - Yearbook Ad
With the month of June approaching quickly, I can’t help but think about the exciting gifts the end of
school year brings: summer break, warm picnic weather, blooming flowers in my backyard, and most
importantly, the yearbook!
Although it’s painful to look back on old photos of myself, it’s always fun to flip through the pages and spot photos of my friends and teachers on there. As shown by the yearly changes in Max Ge’s hairstyle, the yearbook provides a great way to reflect on our growth and changes throughout the high school years. But not only does it capture the growth in appearance, it also documents the shifts in our mindset with the fun interview questions that appear throughout the book. It feels a little weird and bittersweet that an entire year’s worth of memory can be compressed into one single book, capturing everything from friendships, sports teams, rallies, to dances. I also find it cool that the yearbook allows you to learn about the people from different grades that you never knew existed.
I often hear my friends complain about the rising yearbook prices, but I don’t think I will ever stop purchasing them no matter how expensive they get because I believe that no money value is more valuable than memoires. I remember seeing my mother’s elementary yearbook photo a couple years ago and was shocked to see how similar her smile was to mine. Before I came across that photo, I could never fully visualize my mom as a little girl, but seeing that image allowed me to “time-travel” to the past and meet her as a young girl for the first time.
Yearbook is an important item that not only preserves meaningful memories of your own but also allows you to share them with other people. No matter how old the photos are, the records of the memories can be kept for a lifetime and be forever cherished.
Hey Eunchan, reading both your post along Max's is quite funny. I completely agree with the premise of your post and always try to buy the yearbook yearly. This connects with my blog topic of my memory box because it is inside this box where all of my yearbooks are stored. I randomly find myself going through the box, looking through pictures of myself from kindergarten to 10th grade. This experience is both traumatizing and entertaining. I often finding myself cringing at my awkward smile while also remembering some of my classmates that I had nearly forgotten. It shows, in a way, how far I've come. Without these yearbooks I doubt I would still remember many of these now-forgotten moments. Another thing that I find to be entertaining is the different messages and signatures on the back page of my yearbooks that are funny to read today. Great post!
ReplyDeleteHi Eunchan!
ReplyDeleteI just finished responding to Max’s blog, so reading both of your posts was pretty fun. I agree that it’s fun to look through old memories, but the embarrassing moments make me not want to look at them at the same time. How would you describe Max’s hairstyle transformation over the years? I know a bunch of people who don’t want to buy yearbooks because of the cost, but I agree that memories are of more value than money (I should’ve bought a yearbook this year). A yearbook is like a time capsule where you can see every single person in your school, and it’s like unlocking new characters in a game that you have never seen before. I enjoyed your blog, and I’m definitely buying a yearbook next year!
-Colin
Hi Eunchan! I love the yearbook too! It’s super fun to just flip through the yearbook and look at all my classmates (and stare at the attractive ones). Even better, I love reading the notes that my friends and my teachers write for me! I just know I will have a lot of fun looking back on it in the future. In 20 years, I will look at look at Hayoon and remember our fun time at the Enhypen concert and how she took me to Yogurtland! And when I look at Eunchan, I’ll remember how she threatened to write a blog about my freshman year haircut and arrested me during my POAS presentation!
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I find the feeling of bittersweetness to be present even while living in the present. Sometimes, in the best moments, I will just think about how in some amount of years, I won’t be surrounded by the same people or be living the same AP Lang lifestyle as I am now. And that makes me cherish the moment even more.
Outside of a yearbook, I think my camera roll is an incredible way to also keep these memories. I forget about so many fun things I’ve done until I look into my camera roll. Or my shared albums that keep the hundreds of photos taken at each hangout. And actually I suck at taking pictures because it’s just something I don’t think about enough, so I’m actively trying to increase the number of photos I take during my daily life! See you later Eunchan!
Hi Eunchan! I love the concept of a yearbook, too! I love how it stands to encapsulate the things we, as a school, did the entire year and put it all into a well-preserved, hardcover (I think) book. I think it’s the best way to “bottle up” such important memories and keep them safeguarded for future nostalgia. Also, what’s this about Max’s hairstyle? I might have to go through the yearbook to satiate my growing curiosity by understanding the reference (sorry, Max).
ReplyDeleteMoving on, I love the cheerful, yet somewhat sentimental, quality of your tone. I think you develop your voice in thorough perfection throughout the blog, using vivid elements of visualization to aid with the nostalgic undertones. Overall, you did a great job of articulating the wistful quality of capturing memories only to look back at them.