Senior year is one of the most memorable parts of any Langley student’s life. Langley Leap, Hershey Park, and the Philly cheese-steak challenge all make the final year of high school memorable. However, Langley seniors are not able to experience one of the most prominent staples of American high school—senior quotes. 

Langley’s yearbook most recently featured quotes for seniors in 2003. With the theme “more than a name,” this yearbook was intended to highlight the individuality of students at Langley. However, since then, The Shire has done very little to make it seem like its seniors are “more than just a name.” The yearbook features pages upon pages of names and photos, but these pages do little to showcase the passions, talents, and goals of Langley’s seniors. 

 In spite of the potential benefits the incorporation of quotes may provide, senior Minna Thompson, one of the yearbook’s editors-in-chief, has expressed concern regarding their presence. 

“[Students] will give quotes that are […] thinly veiled […] drug references and […] sexual references [as well as] rude things […] that are […] veiled within a quote […] there’s so much risk for that if you get into [collecting] 500 quotes,” Thompson said.  

Although inappropriate quotes may be submitted by students, measures can be taken to prevent this. In the digital age, information can be collected quickly and easily through digital mediums. Manual review of quotes may be necessary, but would not be heavily time-intensive given their relatively short length. Editors of the yearbook could also deter submission of inappropriate quotes by requiring students to submit both a first-choice and second-choice for all students who submit quotes. Additionally, the editors-in-chief have raised concerns with how senior quotes could affect spacing. 

“We like […] more space in the book for […] creativity and more student input and student coverage […] expanding the […] senior headshots […would make] it harder for the software that we use to […] flow the senior headshots through. It’s just […] much easier when you just keep [the design] to even squares across a page,” Thompson said.  

Thompson’s fellow editor-in-chief, senior Caroline Lavin, echoed Thompson’s concerns regarding spacing. “Just recently, [Thompson and I…] laid out all [of] the senior headshots on the [yearbook’s] people pages and it was really hard to fit even what we had because we like to make the senior pictures a little bit bigger than the [underclass] pictures because [senior portraits are…] professionally-done portraits […] I can’t even imagine how many more pages [incorporating senior quotes] would take up,” Lavin said.  

Even though the addition of quotes could impact the yearbook’s spacing, an increase in the number of pages designated for photos in The Shire would allow for this to occur. Alternatively, the yearbook’s editors could feature senior quotes on separate pages from photos in order to keep their design for pages with photos consistent. 

After high school, individuals often feel compelled to look back at their high school experience. As former students flip through the pages of their high school yearbooks, their senior quote would be one of the first things that they see. If The Shire incorporates senior quotes, students will be able to commemorate their teenage years in a unique, unforgettable way. This school year, Oakton High School’s yearbook will feature some quotes from students on its last few pages. While they are not traditional senior quotes, the increased incorporation of student quotes has allowed Oakton’s yearbook to feature the individuality of its seniors according to Oakton senior and yearbook editor-in-chief Amy Dai. 

“Ultimately, I do really like the idea of senior quotes because in the end, they do make the book feel more meaningful and personable to [students]. It definitely makes the book feel more alive and I can see the book leaving a more permanent incorporation of quotes […] to see [their impact] makes the process of incorporating them worth it,” Dai said.