Mission Completed

My classroom is ready for hibernation. All visual reminders of the final, painful yearbook deadline have been long-since patched by the diligent maintenance staff. The air smells of equal parts stress, fear, desperation, and deodorant-adverse 8th graders.
My desk is full of fun gifts and beautiful notes from my yearbook jedi, including a green light saber for yearbook master Yoda. The force is strong with the kidlets, it is. Grateful to them, I am.
There is evidence of a last-day-of-school-breakfast-buffet in my to classroom...

...and the back corner of my room is stacked to ceiling with empty shipping boxes, and every flat surface is covered with purchase and delivery lists.

What does it all mean?

THE YEARBOOKS ARE HERE!!!!
ALL 356 OF THEM!!!
They have been counted, sorted, bagged, delivered, handed-out, signed, and taken home.

My first year as a yearbook advisor is over, and now all of the memories of late deadlines, misspelled names, missing photos, and uncooperative index pages have been replaced with thoughts about this beautiful cover...

...and these fabulous end sheets. I LOVE these end sheets. Really. I'm seriously considering proposing.

Not to mention the beautiful pages that my adorable, pro-deodorant yearbook jedi assembled over the now kaput school year.

Once I had finished signing the last book of the last student to walk out the doors and into summer vacation, I sat down filled through the pages of my kidlets' masterpiece. See the background on this 7th grade boys basketball layout? That is a photo of our gym floor. Have I mentioned that they are geniuses? Because they are.

Who would have thought that the same kids who volunteered to come to school on Saturdays and then risked life and limb riding roller-chairs down the giant ramp...

...were the same kids who planned, designed, and published this?!?!

On that last afternoon, I was determined to sit back and reflect on my very first group of yearbook jedi. Thankfully, as Yearbook Jedi Master Yoda, I didn't have to send my newly trained jedi off to battle any Sith Lords. But they did have to face down a few cranky teachers who weren't aware that the yearbook staffers were the only kids allowed in the hallways before 8:15 on the last day of school. Hummm...Sith Lords, cranky jr. high teachers....Now that I think about it, the yearbook jedi might have preferred going up against the Sith Lords.

But the force is strong with them and they survived virtually unscathed. I was determined to bask in the glow of a completed yearbook and all of the compliments my little staff received from teachers, students, and parents alike. Life was good.

And then I checked my box in the staff mail room and found this... the starter kit for the 201o yearbook. Seriously, Lifetouch couldn't have let me have one afternoon of basking before smacking me in the face with the reality of "Yearbook Wars, Episode Two: The Uncooperative Index Menace"?

Oh well. Summer vacation starts today, so I will think about THAT tomorrow.

Ooops. I mean, Tomorrow think about that, will I.

Yoda out.

It's nap time.