A Picture is Worth Very Few Words

Updated 6-Aug-2011

After both of my parents had passed away, I took to reading the obituaries and death notices in the newspaper in order to keep track of their elderly friends in the neighborhood. (I kept this up for a few years until it became too much of a hassle.) A number of obituaries and notices had yearbook photographs of the person who had passed away. I developed a fear that, in my case, somebody would look at my yearbook bio - forget the goofy picture - and say "He lied!"

So, to set the record straight, here's the truth about my yearbook entry. First of all, the photograph was scheduled to be taken during the summer before our senior year; i.e., before I knew what I would be doing in 12th grade. I showed up to have my picture taken only to find out that I also had to fill out a form with my activities and my ambition, none of which I had given any thought to. My trite ambition, "To be a success and to make a worthwhile contribution to society.", was made up on the spot and sounded like it. None of the profundity that others managed in their statements of ambition.

My activities I had to guess at, since 12th grade hadn't even started yet:

• Chess Club - We used to play chess a lot at home and I was in the Chess Club in 11th grade, so I figured I'd probably join again. I didn't. In fairness, I was spending a lot of time after school in the school's darkroom, developing and printing photographs.
• French Club - I was an honest-to-goodness member of the French Club.
• Merit Scholars - I had a high PSAT score, so I thought I might be a Merit Scholar. I wasn't. (When 12th grade actually rolled around, the school newspaper editor was in the Principal's office when the high scores came in. He told me I missed being a semi-finalist by 1 point. Bummer!)
• Nor'wester - I was the photographer for this, the school newspaper.
• Photography Club - I was President of the photography club.
• Senior Class Play - I wasn't involved in the Senior Class Play except to take pictures of rehearsals for the Nor'wester.
• Senior Prom Committee - Half the people in the yearbook apparently worked on this committee! I do remember attending several meetings to choose a band for a dance or the Prom, I'm not sure which.
• Tennis Team - My brother and I had been avid tennis players for several years and not too shabby at it either, so I thought I would try out for the tennis team. I didn't. One close friend - and an actual athlete - who signed my yearbook congratulated me on all my tennis victories!

Activities not listed:

• Compass - was the high school yearbook itself. It had its own official photographer, but some of my photographs appeared in it as well.
• Phi Beta Nu - was an academic organization for students with high GPAs. I can't remember if we had any events associated with the organization, although we might have had a picnic or something and there was a group photograph in the yearbook.