By Sarah Garrett
When it comes to the yearbook, most of us probably flip first to the senior superlatives pages (after checking out our own picture). And most of us probably look forward to senior year so that we have the chance to win “Best All Around,” “Best Smile,” or “Most Likely To Be a Billionaire.” And maybe we worry a little that we might get “Most likely to be Late to Graduation.”
After the Senior Superlatives Google form came out last month, I spoke with Isabella Gray, a senior section editor, who told me about the process of making the senior superlatives, collecting votes, and taking the photos.
Isabelle is a big fan of the recurring feature. She thinks it’s “a great way to highlight people in our grade with talents or laugh at funny memories our grade has made over the years.”
Although it might seem challenging to get the whole grade to vote, Isabella said that this year, “out of the 140 people in our grade, at least 120 people answered,” which in my book is pretty impressive. She said it “was definitely hard to set up the Google doc, making sure each person in the grade was on it-it took me around three hours.”
According to Isabella, the votes are normally pretty consistent. “It seemed like everybody in the grade was on the same page about who should win each category,” she said. She said all the winners were pretty expected, with few near ties or surprising nominees.
While yearbook members are able to see the vote results and the identity of the voters, they only collect our emails to make sure everyone has had a chance to participate.
After they collect all the votes, they must organize all of the photos of the winners. Isabella really enjoys this part. She and two other seniors, Charlotte Stukes and Kennedy Campbell, pitch ideas for photo concepts and then coordinate with the winners to set a time when they can take the pictures, which can be during a class period, lunch, or over the weekend.
Over the years, they have gotten rid of only a few senior superlatives or changed them a little. They got rid of the superlative “Biggest Phone Addict” because “nowadays everyone is addicted to their phones.” They also changed “Future Buckhead Parents” to “Future NYO and Tophat Parents” and switched “Worst Driver” to “Most Likely to Get In a Deck Wreck” to make it more Lovett-oriented. Still, they’ve tried to keep the essential categories consistent over the years so everyone can look back on all of the winners throughout the years and compare.
Sometimes, students have refused to claim a senior superlative by not taking the photo. In this case, the runner-up will then take the place of the person who originally had won. Although occasionally there have been hurt feelings over votes, Isabelle believes senior superlatives are not intended to be mean, rude, or make people feel bad. They are just a fun way to reflect on the many interesting characters who have walked the Lovett halls. Still, if people do not feel comfortable claiming one of the superlatives, Isabella says, “they will in no way be forced to take the photo.”
From the way Isabelle talked, it was clear she really enjoys being in the yearbook. Over the years, she has gotten close to so many people in the class, and she looks forward to it all day when it is on her schedule. “I love being in the yearbook class,” she said. “It is one of my favorite classes of the day, and it has been so fun watching it grow and learning new things each year,” she said.
If there was a superlative for Biggest Yearbook Fan, she’d definitely get it.
