"What's your quote for the yearbook?" I've lost count on how often I've heard this question, but the answer is always the same: I don't know. I never thought this question would torment me so much, its just a quote. But as a senior, you start to realize that this one quote is what we will look back on. It can't just be something like: "Twerk."-Miley Cyrus or "Believe."-Justin Beiber. So what exactly makes a quote good enough to be in the yearbook? What makes it awful? An example of a good quote would be the wise words of Gandhi, "Be the change you want to see in the world". This quote is meaningful but is often misused by teenagers. I can guarantee you that half of the seniors that use this quote don't live by it. They don't change the world but conform to its standards. Sure, it isn't a big deal if you don't change the world but why try to put a quote that isn't who you are? This is the problem with yearbook quotes, everyone puts a quote that they WISH explains who they are. Its like when people say they love everyone but don't really like anyone. They pretend to be something they're not. It's so typical from teenagers who don't know who they are or are defined by their group of friends in high school. They use quotes like "Be yourself; everyone else is already taken." yet they have a clique in which they are all exactly the same. Take your typical white girl, for example. They all have the same Hollister jeans, Uggs, stick straight hair, and a face caked with makeup yet they are so different! Or your gothic, emo, scene teenage girl, that feels like she doesn't fit in, yet there are twenty more girls in school with the same black clothes, black lipstick, and purple hair. You are a type, a clique, you are not yourself. Please don't use that quote. As a teenager, it's hard to stay true to yourself. I think that concept is what makes this picking of quotes symbolic. Are you typical and choose a Mean Girls quote? Do you know who you are, what defines you? If you could put yourself in a quote, what would it be? Your quote should be words that you live by. It should be something that inspires you to be a better person. It should be something that shows the type of person you really are. You shouldn't pick a quote because it 'sounds fancy' or 'makes me look like a good person'. Do you know how many people mistakenly quote Marilyn Monroe as if she was some goddess?? Yes, she was beautiful and talented but she was a sex symbol who overdosed on cocaine. The people you quote should be inspirational and their words should inspire you. That quote should be something you could look back on when you feel lost and be inspired just like seventeen year old you was inspired.
This thought about quotes is one that everyone should adhere too. So many people today idolize other human beings that change the world but not for beneficial reasons. i agree that a yearbook quote should be something you realisticly follow or live by each day and not just something that looks "cool". This is something that goes in a yearbook that will be looked at 20 years from now by alumni or even their kids and should be a reflection of who they were, not who they wanted to be. Yes, it is a free country and everyone has freedom of speech but it should not be abused in idiotic ways. Taylor Swift once said
ReplyDelete“Your lucky enough to be different, never change". We should all look at this and really think about who we we really are and want to be known for in the world.
I completely agree. It frustrates me when people quote Miley Cyrus or Mean Girls or somebody who, in my opinon, isn't inspirational. Maybe that's wrong, since everybody is inspired by different people, but I agree that senior quotes should have meaning. They should be meaningful not only to the world, but to you as well. Unfortunately, people will look at their senior yearbook in 10 or 20 years, see the quote under your picture, and remember who you are. I feel like senior quotes are a representation of the person you were in high school, whether the quote is meaningful or not. So people need to take that into consideration when picking a senior quote: in a decade, these few words underneath your senior portrait will be one of the ways your classmates remember who you were--so choose wisely, and don't just pick something to try to be funny or cool. Because in 10 years....who really cares about that anyway?
ReplyDeleteThis has been a great struggle for me. I agree 100%, you took the words right out of my mouth. Being the indecisive person that I am, this decision brings me to the brink of tears because I want to be able to look back and think, "Dang, i was deep" but I also want to look back and directly relate my quote with what kind of person I was in high school. It stinks being interested in the things that I like because I would fall under the title of a "wanna-be hippie." I can't help that I want to make my quote something Jim Morrison or Janis Joplin said, that's just who I am. My parents are from the '60s and '70s and that's just how they raised me, as a total flower child. I, unfortunately, of course grew out of that mostly but the point is these are quotes I love and do live by (minus the drugs, sex, only a little rock and roll) but it's because of stereotypes, people who don't know me would just consider me a poser. I don't want to fall under any of those groups but because it is so much easier to classify society this way, everyone is thrown into some sort of group. So this whole originality thing, for me at least, is unavoidable. I do, however, want the quote to represent the person I am not the person I wish i could be. Your post points out my problems and observations exactly... at least I'm not alone on this one.
ReplyDeleteA timely post, Genessis. Did you decide on your quote yet? What is it? ...Or are you, ironically, still stuck even after writing this post?
ReplyDeleteFor future posts, separate your ideas into paragraphs, and edit to improve efficiency.