We often receive last-minute messages from frantic students (and sometimes teachers!) begging for good comments. Whether you’re writing questions for your classmates to answer, or writing your comment for your individual profile, don’t despair! You’re not alone. We’ve got you covered.
If you’re in a rush, these questions are a great way to get started with your yearbook comment:
- If this was an acceptance speech, who would you thank?
- What do you plan to be doing in 10 years?
- If your school were a person, what would they remember about you?
This is the basic outline of a killer yearbook comment. Even if you write nothing else, answering these questions will help you to leave a great lasting impression of the person you currently are.
If you’re organising a yearbook, share these questions with your classmates to help them with their message.
Thanks to all my mates and Ms. Middleton for being such legends the past few years. You’ll all be seeing me on TV in ten years, so make sure you remember the face. I think this school would remember me as the guy who made everyone smile, but I guess that’s for you to decide.”
That’s it. You’re done. However, if you feel like you still want to write more, or you don’t like the questions above, come with me on…
A trip down memory lane
Chances are, you’ve been at school for years. You’ve had thousands of lessons with the same unlikely crew of friends (and frenemies). Along the way, you must have picked up a lot of memories.
Which experiences stand out from the rest of the pack? What still makes you laugh today when you think about it? What shared experience helped to bring the whole class together?
Basically, what’s your favourite school memory? You might not remember it in 20 years’ time, but if you write it down now, you’ll have it forever. Just remember to respect your classmates; this is their yearbook too, and they don’t want you to write about that really embarrassing thing that happened to them in Year 9. (Remember that? Gross.)
Here’s some magic school moments to help fire up your memory’s hard drive:
- The school play that had everyone in tears.
- The school trip from hell.
- The time the score came down to the wire.
- The great banter you had in your chemistry lessons.
- The time that pigeon broke into assembly.
Remember the time that pigeon got in to assembly and divebombed Ms. Middleton?”
Feeling inspired? If not, it’s always okay to…
Borrow from the greats
We stand on the shoulders of giants. There’s no shame in borrowing a meaningful sentiment from somebody else; you’re just building on what they’ve done.
Maybe something your favourite teacher once said has always stuck with you. Maybe your friend has a saying that you feel is particularly appropriate.
I’ve had a pretty great time here, but it’s like Ms Middleton always used to say: ‘Sometimes you’re the pigeon, and sometimes you’re the statue’. I guess she was the statue that day in assembly.”
Or maybe you don’t remember anything like that, and just want a list of good quotes to pick from. That’s okay too; we’ve got you covered here.
Warning: You must read this!
If you’ve read this far, you’re in danger. You might have been picking up bits and pieces of comment from the advice above, but if you’ve taken everything onboard, your yearbook comment is going to be longer than the summer holidays (and trust me, you’re really going to miss having those in the years to come).
You need to be selective, or you’re going to end up writing the longest yearbook comment known to mankind. The amount you can write varies between yearbook projects, but in general, around 40-80 words is a good amount.
Whatever you write in your yearbook, make sure it’s personal to you, and that what you’ve written doesn’t single anyone out in a mean way (unless it’s Ms. Middleton and the great pigeon fiasco of 2017).
Finally, don’t write in-jokes. It might be funny to you now, but it’ll make no sense when you come back to read it later on, and in-jokes exclude other yearbook owners from having a solid memory of you.
That’s it. I’m going to take my own advice, and leave you with a relevant quote from Maya Angelou:
People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”