Most memorable yearbook moments

Mine are too embarassing to ever see the light of day.

 

We always got our yearbooks the next year so we would get these inserts that we would have signed at the end of the school year to put in the books once we received them. I always lost them. But the ones from middle school are funny. You get like 100 "Have a great summer" comments. So sincere.

 

Was reminded of my most memorable yearbook moment recently when I was looking at my senior yearbook and reading all of my friends' silly little writings (I'm the first to sign your crack!) and came across one that I had nearly forgot about.

It was from my best friend, a guy who was probably more of a fuckup than me, if that's possible. He was rarely serious about anything, always joking. Except for his final message in my yearbook. He wrote "I know I've never told you this, and I probably would have a hard time saying it in person, but I love you. I love you like a brother and I'm going to miss you."

Sadly, I was reminded of his message the afternoon of his funeral after he was killed in Iraq. What I wouldn't give to be able to go back in time and let him know I felt the exact same way. I'm sure he knew, but I just never told him.

 

I bet Z-Man can be bribed.

 

This one is from my 4th grade yearbook (sad but true): the members of the student government got to go to meet the governor. There was an entire spread of them at this conference with him.

This governor? George W. Bush.

 

Dear Mustang: U R 2 kool 4 skool! Homeroom wuz da best! history class suxed! Have a gr8 summer C U in da fall! Ur freind BYH

 

He was just glad there was no TV show asking him if he was smarter than a fourth-grader.

 

Yearbook memory? Designing half the pages in the thing.

 

I can relate. I had a complex friendship with a guy who was on the school's football, wrestling and baseball teams at our high school. I was the kid who just transferred down during the middle of senior year and I was hanging out with the drama kids.

Anyway, our paths crossed a year after I graduated when he went to the same community college I did. And yes, he was on the college's baseball team. Meanwhile, I was now on the student newspaper and I was soon to be the sports editor. When baseball season hit, I'd cover the games. Over the course of four baseball seasons, I covered the team (in fact, I was also running the scoreboard because I sat in the dugout at the team's invitation).

During the third season I covered the team, players would see me in the halls and ask the whereabouts of their teammate. I never figured out why guys who played on the same team he did would ask ME, about the most unathletic thing on two legs, where their teammate was. Until the semester and baseball season were over and I sat at a lunch table with a teammate of his.

The guy told me that my high school friend was always saying nice things about me. A few months later (around Thanksgiving), he sent me an e-mail in which he thanked me for simply being nice to him. We had one of those relationships where neither of us would say it, but we definitely had a great mutual friendship going for several years.

 

I love my high school yearbook. There's a great picture of me crip-walking down a stage in the quad during the fashion show in my sweet tuxedo with two of my best friends.

I was also asked by the yearbook director /teacher to do two audio interviews with our school's two best athletes — one of whom plays in the NFL, the other who quarterbacks a major college team — for the DVD yearbook, and that was pretty cool.

And I was named Care Bear. Awwwwwww.

 

My fourth-grade social studies class sang the state song at an assembly at the local community college to honor the visiting governor.

That governor? Ann Richards

My senior yearbook, to me, represents my ascension in the social ranks during my four years of high school. As a freshman, I was in it maybe twice. My senior year, I'm in the thing about two dozen times, doing everything from the majority of clubs (FCA, honor society, Key Club, TSA), to being captain of the spirit guard (rang a huge bell with Butch the Bulldog painted on the side and got to ride with the cheerleaders to all road football games), to the academic stuff.

Also, to tell you how much of a dork I was, no matter how involved I was with the in-crowd, I had perfect attendance four consecutive years in high school. What can I say? I enjoyed it.

 

Four? That's nothing. I had perfect attendance from beginning to end. K-12. Can't beat that record... [/dork piece of shit]

(I did have perfect attendance K-12 though, no shit.)