Of Grad Pics and Yearbooks

I just received my daughter’s kindergarten yearbook last month.

Too early you say? Too quick? Of course not!

She was in kinder two years ago! Yep that’s right. It was fully paid TWO YEARS ago and the school released it only last month. Paying the full yearbook fee was required two years ago or else they won’t sign my daughter’s clearance. They made us wait for two years and when we had the yearbook, we found out that my husband’s name was misspelled!

Tell me, all you guys in the publishing business, isn’t it jurassic to release a yearbook after two years even if the school has students from the pre-elementary to college levels? With all these digital camera and state-of-the-art color separation technologies and camera ready publishing, isn’t it medieval to have parents wait for two years before getting hold of a yearbook that contains their children’s baby faces?

Believe me, my daughter’s looks now is so much different from how she looked like two years ago. That actually softened my anger at how long the school took to come out with the yearbook. I recalled with fondness how she was in kindergarten. I was not mad because of the big difference in how she looks like. I was mad about the school’s inefficiency and non-transparency of how long it would take for them to publish the yearbook. I felt like a hostage who can’t do anything because I have already paid in full. Had I known it would take them that long, believe me, I wouldn’t care if my daughter has a yearbook or not.

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My own yearbook

I myself went to pre-school in 1979 and yes, I had a yearbook. There were no digital cameras then but our yearbook had a colored over and black and white photos. I do not remember receiving a copy only after two years later. I also had a yearbook when I graduated from grade six and the last one when I graduated from high school. My high school yearbook was hard bound with a two-colored cover. Still, there were no digital cameras and state-of-the art publishing technologies in 1989 but I received that yearbook before I entered college. Not two years later.

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I kept the yearbook in my cabinet after taking a look at her photo once. I know it may not be of much use today but in the future, it might be. Like when I was applying for a passport, I had to produce a National Statistics Office-authenticated birth certificate. I have been using my full name ever since I learned how to write and imagine how weak my knees went when I saw the birth certificate carrying a misspelled first name! Imagine too the inconvenience of getting a notarized affidavit from two old people who attested that the person with my full name and the person in the birth certificate was one and the same person. I also had to produce old documents that will show proof that the name I am using is the same name that I have in all of my records. God bless my mom who kept all yearbooks, school report cards, baptismal certificates and honor certificates. A photocopy of my pre-school yearbook was one of the documents that I submitted because the older it was, the better proof it would be.

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The Graduation Pictures (Grad Pics)

I never looked good in any of my graduation pictures. The worst grad pic I had was in pre-school and the best was in college. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a yearbook in college. Here are the photos that I am talking about. If I happen to find my other pictures, I will post it here too and show you an evolution of THE Mamie Ami LOOK

When I and my siblings look at our old photos, we reminisce the stories that go with it. Surely, when my daughter and I look at her yearbook years from now, I will again tell the story of waiting for two years just to find her father’s misspelled name.