This school year has been filled with challenges and the yearbook staff was not exempt from that. Starting in the fall with 60 students as opposed to the 18 that were on the staff at the end of last year, there was a lot to learn and a lot of people to teach. Students in the class worked hard to create a book that would represent not only the theme but what it means to be a Glacier Peak student. In November, the class was invited to St. Louis, Missouri where they learned that the 2021-2022 yearbook, “Begin Again”, won ninth place for Best in Show at the conference in the largest book category. The point of the conference was to attend classes to help improve the book being created this year, while still including the Mrs. Green charm of adding fun activities while exploring the new state. “Going to the Blues game was super fun because my dad lived in St. Louis for many years, so because Houston doesn’t have a hockey team, my dad and I are big Blues fans,” Trevor Butler said. 

After taking over the Midwest, the next place we were headed was the East Coast in the beautiful city of New York, NY. Spending a week in New York, our staff was able to attend the CSPA’s annual convention for yearbook, newspaper, and other media students from all over the country. In addition to the conference, the yearbook staff had the opportunity to experience New York to the fullest extent before leaving as they saw Hamilton on Broadway, visiting Times Square, going to a St. Patrick’s Day Parade, seeing the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, taking a ride up to the Top of the Rock, took pictures of the Statue of Liberty, and riding the subway every day. “My time while in New York has become some of my best memories and I will remember them forever because it’s helped me to build so many new friendships,” Tem Forbes said. 

Deadlines came every quarter, which included one night full of work and food. Deadline one brought the summer, first day of school, fall sports and the homecoming pages. Deadline two brought the academic section, baby ads and senior section, underclassmen section, and the fall play, Peter and the Starcatcher. Deadline three pages were the winter sports, lifestyles pages, and the staff page. The last and biggest deadline for the staff members was deadline four which contained the spring sports pages, clubs, opening and closing pages, the spring calendar, other lifestyles pages, index, and the school musical, The Little Mermaid. Each staff member holds different jobs during the different deadlines, and with every helping in different areas, it helps create the book in a much quicker, more efficient way. “The deadline works nights are always so fun, getting to hang out with all the yearbook people and working on our assignments together always makes the experience so much more fun. I also really like ordering food. My favorite night was Panda Express, I love Chinese food,” Regan Burkart said. 

As the books get delivered and handed out and we present our final projects, we look back on the year with this book as a reminder as to what all our hard work this year was for. The whole school is reading what the yearbook staff’s homework was, which will be submitted to national competitions.

Saying goodbye to the seniors who helped make this class a home, welcoming in the unfamiliar staff members in the fall will remind the returners why everyone continues to work so hard. While the trips out of state are fun and working together to pick what movie the staff will watch at the end of the year is entertaining, the Student Media classroom has held a lot of hard work, and blood, sweat, and tears, but it has also held memories that staff members will carry either to their next year of high school or to their new chapter in college.