YBK

Warning: This is a really long blog about the Carnegie Middle School yearbook. It's probably only interesting to me.

So, can I just say that I love doing yearbook? It's busy, it makes WAY more work than I would otherwise have, I have to deal with every club adviser in the school, my brain is constantly thinking of what we need to photograph. But, it's my favorite part of my job.

I love going through photos and seeing that one of the kids got an awesome picture. Today, I was editing the Dances page and there is a picture of two girls jumping and dancing and the photographer caught them at the perfect moment. The PE page has a picture of two boys jumping in mid-air to do the tip-off in a basketball game. The girl taking pictures of Leadership students counting flyers stood on a table to get a different angle, and it makes what otherwise would have been a boring picture pretty cool. And I love that these are my 12 and 13 year old students.

I love reading an article about an event we do every year that has a creative beginning, way better than I could have thought of. The article for the Science Convention, where the kids dress up as a famous scientist, begins like this: "Have you ever wondered who invented the telescope, discovered electricity, or invented peanut butter? Well, on November 24th in Power's Hall, you could find your answer." The girls doing that page also want to do a matching game, where they'll have pictures of the students in costumes and then have the scientists names on the side, and people have to match up who's who. Love it!

I love seeing the kids be creative and make pages that I would never make. The Spirit Week page is straight out of the 80's, with pink and blue squares in the background. The girls doing 8th Grade Favorites put the names on the pictures themselves, and put the categories running vertically next to the pictures. It made my least favorite page look actually pretty cool.

I love that I get to go through each page and edit it-it's like getting to be on yearbook staff, but not having to do all of the work-I just get to have my final say on each page. So, in two weeks when I am spending all weekend editing the 38 pages that are due, I might complain about it. But I'm full of crap. I love every second of it. 

Loved

When my mom told my grandma about my tattoo, she said, "Oh, I love Jessica so much, I wouldn't care if she got a tattoo on her face."

That made me feel more loved than I have in a long time. Because I think my grandma really dislikes tattoos. But she loves me. 

AND, now I can finally get my face tattoo, just like I've always dreamed of.

Half-full

Somedays, I don't feel like an optimist.

Given just the right algorithm of age, times the number of friends getting married, to the bronchitis power, plus the number of papers I have to grade, divided by days until my National Board Portfolio is due; sometimes it all equals half empty.

But, I choose hope. I choose to believe that life is good. That the things that I want will happen for me. That while my happiness doesn't always look how I expected it to, it's still happiness. Wrapped in Pinkberry, covered with a good movie, tied with the bow of sleeping in tomorrow, there it is. My optimism, a gift just for me.