But my strange love for nostalgia is not why I took the position as an editor for the 2011 yearbook. I took it because I thought I could squeeze another extracurricular into my schedule and, mostly, because it paid. I'm a little ashamed to say it but I should probably make that clear. I wouldn't have considered the position if it wasn't paid. Only halfway through did I realize I would not be paid nearly enough, and there's a lesson in there somewhere.
As often as I complained, cried, and ranted during the past seven months (holy shit, has it really been 7 months?!) about the work, I'm so glad I did it. I edited, edited, edited, I wrote and rewrote. I learned so much about managing people, dealt with the frustrations of uncooperative writers, and felt the joys of planning a good idea and executing it. I interviewed so many interesting students (especially during winter break, when I finally had the chance to catch up on the work) and learned about the many different facets of the colleges at SU. I'll admit it's a little corny, but I really did enjoy speaking to people about their college experience and learning more about the university through them. I've spent my four years here in the Newhouse bubble, and haven't really tried to understand what it's like for the 2,000+ other students who study a different discipline. And, above all, this book helped me reminisce.
At one point last semester, when all the work just became too overwhelming and I wasn't sure how to handle it, I visited my advisor, former dean of the Newhouse school, who I greatly respect and adore. He suggested I drop something. He told me yearbooks are passe. I disagreed, and really I'm not sure what I was hoping he'd say. I had already committed to yearbook, to Medley, to my classes. I knew dropping something was not an option, I'd have to suck it up. But he was a little right. Though I didn't deal with sales, I heard often how difficult it was to convince seniors to buy the book. My peers don't care about the yearbook. They can find pictures, reconnect, and reminisice on Facebook. And even if they couldn't, I find my generation, my class, is largely apathetic, and not at all sentimental. But I worked hard to curate and create content that maybe 10, 20, 30 years down the line, would evoke some nostalgia and (hopefully) happy memories in whomever decided to purchase the book.
It FINALLY went to print last Monday. We had one of our last meetings today. Now we just wait for the book to arrive during the first week of May (This is the first SU yearbook, btw, in 126 years, that will be delivered to seniors in the spring instead of the fall after they graduate--another reason it was difficult; we had that time crunch). I don't agree with all the artistic decisions (I still lament an illustration of Newhouse 1 instead of Newhouse 3 in Academics, and the removal of a wonderful, but tasteful, full bleed photo of a late-night beer pong game due to, in my opinion, unfounded cautiousness on the part of our advisor). The book is definitely not perfect, but it's pretty damn good, I have to say. It's better. I'm extremely proud of the hard work we put into it and prouder to represent all of the editorial content of the Academic and Student Life sections.
No regrets.
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