At Osbourn High School, a yearbook is more than just a picture; it is a permanent capture of the experience and memories. It shows our school’s legacy for years to come through photographs.

Creating a legacy is no small task, according to the yearbook teacher, Ms Miller, “Well, we have to come up with a theme concept, and it all blossoms from that. Based on our theme, we design the cover and pages, decide on the content, take all the pictures, and do all the research and writing. It is a long, but fun journey.”

Just making a book also gives you professional skills that are more than just for school. Ms. Miller states, “They learn photography, caption writing, article writing, design, theme development, and marketing.” Because there is so much to cover, Ms. Miller organizes everyone in different areas. “I usually break students into groups by the yearbook section they are working on. So some students work on just the sports section all year, or the student life section, or whatever.” It takes a lot of photographers, writers, and editors to capture a year at Osbourn,  so these students are obviously very dedicated to the project.

Yearbook is a fun class to take. A lot of students say they love yearbook, like Maya Lucero, who states, “ I joined yearbook because I have been taking yearbook class since my sophomore year. I really enjoy being able to create a good, detailed yearbook for all students and staff to enjoy.”

Stella Brittinger shared a similar enjoyment of yearbook. She states, “I joined yearbook because I was in journalism class with yearbook my freshman year. I thought it would be fun and an interesting class, so I freed my schedule up to take it this year.”

Syeda Hussain found her passion for yearbook this year. She states, “I joined yearbook because I wanted to play a role in creating the annual record of Osbourn’s most essential and exciting events of the year!”

For many, it started as an early interest in media. Allison Avila Rodriguez explained, “I joined yearbook because previously, when I was a journalism student, the yearbook class at that time was very understaffed, and so Ms.Miller asked students from her other classes if they’d like to help assist with the yearbook. I gladly took the opportunity, and I had a blast doing so! I  loved socializing, taking pictures, the time management skills, graphics design, writing, and organizational skills involved in the process! And so, naturally, I registered to take the yearbook the following year as a sophomore.  Additionally, I was very interested in taking the course ever since I was in middle school. I had no prior knowledge or experience in journalism; I always thought it was so cool to have control in publishing a book for everybody to see.”

Many join for the experience, but the real work is managing all the content. There’s something for everyone!  Editor Celine Sakatan explained, “I worked on the academic sections of the yearbook and the opening spread. I interviewed many of the classes here and focused on the students’ academic part of their high school lives.”

Similar to that, Maya Lucero states, “I was in charge of the student life section of the yearbook. I made efforts to get a lot of quotes for the pages and wrote captions for the pictures. Any changes or mistakes that were made, I made sure to fix every detail!”

Beyond working on the sections, editors oversee the whole process of creating the book.  Allison Avila Rodriguez states,” I have been focused on working on the sports section for the past 2 years. Firstly, we have to come up with a layout for the pages in the section. Thankfully, we’re supposed to just use the templates given to us, and from there, we just do minor tweaks. In sports, we just have to place the action shots from photographers, learn and describe what is happening in the photo, and then interview the people in the photo. It sounds easy, but every part of the process is very tedious, yet fun! As an editor, I am responsible for fixing and doing other people’s work that hasn’t been completed. It can get challenging sometimes, especially when the staff member did not follow any consistency rules or have any regard for perfection. But most times, staff members knew how to make a clean and pretty page spread already! Which reminds me, as an editor, you get asked questions by other yearbook staff members all the time in class. Last year, I was even ironically compared to being a teacher for how I was getting called consistently left and right.”

Even before the current book was finished, the staff is already looking ahead to the next concept. Allison Avila Rodriguez explained, “‘Our final deadline for the yearbook is still in early March, so we spend the rest of the school year managing what the theme will be for the following school year. During the ‘23-’24 school year, we chose a theme that consisted of very dark colors, and accidentally made the cover appear very spooky! So since then, we have been trying hard to stay away from that error again, so we have been consistently making lively and colorful themes. Furthermore, we all made ideas and presentations of what we wanted the themes to look like, and we all voted on which one we liked best. This is how we ended up with a Spotify Wrapped theme!”

The yearbook staff wanted to go with a social media-based vibe since it was a hit last time. Maya Lucero states, “We came up with the Spotify theme of the yearbook because using something relatable was really successful for out previous Netflix book. So it was inspired by that. The cover is of a phone showing that you use a phone to access Spotify, but it also acknowledges the new cell phone ban.”

While the inspiration came from social media, the final look was a group effort  Miley Del Cid states, “ We came up with the cover of the yearbook, including some ideas we had in mind, and together we used them to design the cover.”

The work and pictures of the yearbook students are imprinted on the yearbook for years to come. Such a role lets students work on a yearbook for all of the school to see, which typically makes a lot of students feel glad and proud that they contributed to making the infamous yearbook. “I feel proud and thrilled at the fact that people will look back at the 2026 yearbook for years to come, and that I played a part in it. It makes me feel like I’ve become a key factor in the Osbourn community,” says Syeda Hussain.

Miley Del Cid has a similar opinion, stating, “I feel glad that the pictures that I took and words I wrote will be looked at for many years, because it took a lot of work to make the yearbook, and I’m proud to show my contribution in helping with it.”

Although it feels like an achievement, it could also feel unreal; “I think it’ll be a little weird to see my words in the yearbook for everyone to see, just because I haven’t worked on a project like this where it’s displayed for everyone,” says Stella Bittinger.

Experiences and memories have been obtained throughout the school year, but if there were one favored part of the class, what would it be? “My favorite memories are probably getting to talk to all of my friends for quotes. It’s nice to catch up with people I used to talk to all the time and get to see their progress and improvements in sports,” states Stella Bittinger.

Some good memories are from having good eats with your friends; everything is better when you experience it with friends and loved ones. “My favorite memories have been all our past Chick-fil-A days, where we all come together to finish the yearbook, and also getting a VHSL first place on the first yearbook we made with only 6 other people,” says Celine Sakatan. The feeling of delight knowing you contributed to something amazing is satisfying. “I feel glad that the pictures that I took and words I wrote will be looked at for many years because it took a lot of work to make the yearbook, and I’m proud to show my contribution in helping with it,” says Miley Del Cid.

The people around us can impact our surroundings. After a whole year working hard together, if the yearbook students could sum up the rest of the staff in one sentence, what would they say?         “Overall, I would describe the yearbook staff as fun. There were really great fun moments we shared as we created the yearbook,” states Miley Del Cid.

“I think the overall staff was very hardworking and got things done efficiently. Everyone always had something to work on, and it always got done,” states Stella Bittinger.

“Yearbook staff is like a box of chocolates, you never know what page you’re gonna get,” added Allison Avila Rodriguez.

Now that the yearbook has come to an end, a new chapter will open next school year for other students. The current yearbook students will give the future yearbook students important tips they should keep in mind If they are interested in joining.” i think the most important thing that someone would need to know before joining or taking yearbook is that a big part of the class is sociability and cooperation. You have to be comfortable with ( or at least willing to) talking to people, which includes random individuals from around the school, and your group mates. Failing to do so will only make the class much more difficult for you,” states Syeda Hussain.

Be considerate of others. “Do your work on time so it will not have to be piled up on the next person,” says Maya Lucero. Now for the last tip, Cleline Sakatan states, “ It’s a fun class, but it can get very stressful, especially when the yearbook staff doesn’t do their work on time. Also, you should be willing to be social, as you have to talk to a lot of people and communicate with teachers in order to finish the job.”