Stress and Responsibility: A Year as Co-Chief Editor

I initially thought this year’s yearbook was going to be a bit more challenging than last year, but less stressful; however, my expectation was very wrong. Sadly, this year was very stressful, but I was a Co-Chief Editor, so that definitely added to the stress. This year I expected I would contribute by talking to staff members, answering questions, and checking a few spreads on the weekends or nightly. I assumed Katie and I would split the final checks and each of us goes around helping staff members.

My actual work on the book went way beyond my initial expectations. At many times in the school year I became very flustered with how many checks I had to do nightly or over the weekend. One night I took home about fifteen spreads to check the

Some leadership skills that yearbook has allowed to me acquire is: effective communication, problem solving, honesty, positivity, and constructive criticism. In my future, I am planning to become an elementary school teacher; in order to be a teacher, you always have to be a leader, especially with younger kids. These skills will help me to become an efficient and helpful teacher. All of the leadership skills I learned are so beneficial and helpful, but constructive criticism stands out above all. Before yearbook, I would always take constructive criticism in a very negative way, but yearbook has helped me learn to take that criticism and use it to help better

If it wasn’t for everybody, I don’t know if we could have gotten our book done on time. The two people who really have been most helpful to me specifically is Grace and Mrs. Powell. During deadlines, I would become swamped with spreads to check and spent so many hours reading the spreads. Even though I wish I could, there was no possible way for me to catch every single little mistake after reading spreads for hours. Having Grace as accuracy check really helped me to catch more mistakes, and she would even help me with copy checks when I was really swamped with spreads. Mrs. Powell has been very helpful because ever since my freshman year, she has put in so much time, passion and energy into yearbook that she didn’t have to. She helped me by seeing my passion for yearbook and allowing me to become Co-Chief Editor and believing in me. This year, anytime she noticed I was stressed she would try her absolute best to help me with whatever I needed, and always thanked me for helping even if it was the smallest task. She has encouraged me to always do my best not only in yearbook, but also in my life in general. She has been my biggest