Yearbook
Page 22
Hi, Dad!
I know you didn’t want to have students sign your yearbook because it makes you too sad, but I found it and I disobeyed you (probably not for the last time). I took it to my room and had my students sign it—the ones who had you too—and David Sherman took it around to some of the newspaper kids. I hope you don’t mind. I love you.
Owen
Dear Mr. Thomas,
There are a lot of students who say that you are the best teacher they have ever had, and at the beginning of the year, I didn’t agree with them. I thought that a good teacher had to have bells and whistles and different activities every day. I was wrong. You taught us by caring about us and by giving us all a chance without giving us a handout. You are the best teacher I have ever had.
With respect,
Avery Matthews
Dear Mr. Thomas,
I still think that pink Barbie car would have been a smooth ride for the newspapers, but you know best. Thanks for putting up with me all these years. You have been a great teacher and a lot of us have looked up to you and learned from you. I know I sure have.
Dave Sherman
Dear Mr. Thomas,
I’m very glad that I got to be in your class before you retired because you are such a legend and rightfully so. Thank you for all the help you gave me from the first autobiography assignment to the last paper. I think I’m a much better writer now, thanks to you. I hope you enjoy your retirement. Your son is a great teacher too. You must have taught him everything you know. :)
Sincerely,
Michaela Choi
•••
From Principal Downing’s yearbook
Dear Principal Downing,
I asked your secretary if I could sign your yearbook and she found it for me. From all the signatures in here, it looks like I’m not the only person to do this. I wanted to say that I think a lot about how courageous you are. I know there is a lot of pressure that comes from being in the spotlight and I admire the poise and confidence and courage you exhibit. Here is a copy of the quotation you asked for from my graduation speech and a copy of the talk that I found it in. I hope you enjoy both. Thank you again for being our principal and our example.
Sincerely,
Andrea Beckett
Dear Principal Downing,
I’ve ruined your mascot and caused a lot of other havoc at your school and you’ve still been a good sport through it all. Someday when I’m rich I’ll donate a titanium Skipper head to the school in your honor and then no one can ever destroy him again. Still, he won’t be as tough as you (I mean that in a good way). There’re a lot of us rooting for you. Go Downing!
David Sherman
Dear Principal Downing,
Well, this is surreal. If someone had told me at the beginning of the year that I would end up signing your yearbook, there’s no way I would have believed it. Some of our interactions at the beginning of the year involve things I would like to forget, but there are even more that I want to remember. I especially know that I will never forget interviewing you in May. I was (and am) honored that you would choose me to help tell your story. I’ll be thinking of you this summer and hoping everything is going well. See you in the fall.
Avery Matthews
•••
From Michaela Choi’s yearbook
Dear Mikey,
I should probably write this fast because Ethan is standing here waiting for his turn to write in here—and I know you’ll want him to have a chance to sign. J I’ve never written in a best friend’s yearbook before so I’m not quite sure what to say, except thank you. There’s so many fun memories from this year—hanging out with the group and getting ice cream, practicing music together, making our world-famous salsa and smoothies for movie night, calling each other for homework assignments and then forgetting to actually talk about them. And the most wonderful memory of all—my baptism. I’m glad I could be there for you at least a little because you’ve been there for me so much.
Love,
Julie
Mikey—
We have both changed and gotten stronger this year. I’m so glad you’re still in my life. I don’t know what’s ahead, but I know that I will never regret this year with you.
Love, Ethan
Michaela,
Thank you for introducing me to that beautiful song and for being an exceptional student. I look forward to teaching you and Julie, and learning from you both, in Chorale next year. I appreciate all you students have done in making my first year of teaching a memorable one.
Sincerely,
Owen Thomas
•••
From Julie Reid’s yearbook
Julie,
You were my first friend here and I really owe you one for that. Thanks for inviting me to your baptism too, it was really cool. Thanks for always cheering me on. See you around this summer.
Tyler
Julie!
What would I have done without you this year? Whoever thought a best friendship could happen because the principal threw up in the bathroom? It must be destiny for us to be friends.
You taught me more about the gospel than I taught you—that’s for sure. When you reminded me that I could pray for help with my pain, you taught me something I’d forgotten. Or maybe I’d never had a chance to learn. I kept telling you that we all have our trials for a reason, but you showed me how to actually apply the words that I thought I understood. I know you’re always saying how much I helped you this year, but I honestly don’t think that anything I did can even compare to you, Jules.
You have been courageous about acting on the truth that you know, step by step. Watching you discover the gospel has helped me to discover it too. It’s like this ornament Ethan gave me for Christmas. I could tell it was beautiful in the box, but when I held it up to the light, it was exquisite. I think the gospel was like that for me. I knew it was good and true, but then you came along and helped me take it out of its box and showed me how much more to it there really was.
Someday when I am rich and famous and they make a movie out of my life, you will have a very big part. Actually, what will really happen is that they’ll make a movie about you, and I hope that I’ll get to be in it. And they’ll put both of our pictures from the yearbook in the opening credits and we’ll be sitting in the theater together eating popcorn and surrounded on either side by our fabulous husbands and we’ll look at each other and laugh.
Or maybe we’ll be collaborating on a great work of literature in your kitchen and we’ll be covered in flour from making cookies for our kids, who are outside in the backyard playing, and then we’ll all go camping and look at the stars and sing, even if our voices get creaky and rusty. And when we’re old and on missions in faraway places, we’ll write to each other and tell each other how things are.
That’s how it’s going to be, Jules. I have this feeling about it.
Love,
Mikey
Epilogue
Lakeview High School
School was over and everyone at Lakeview High had taken something with them.
Michaela Choi had taken the prism ornament that had hung in her locker since January. The flat, metal background of her locker would be exchanged for the sunlit window in her parents’ kitchen, where everyone could see it. After she lifted it out of her locker, she turned to Ethan Beckett, who was standing next to her. He took her hand and they walked out together. Ethan was carrying his backpack, which for the first time all year was empty and light, free of the weight of a dozen books and all his worries.
David Sherman had taken home the papier-mâché eye that had once belonged to the Skipper. He was planning to send it to Avery for Christmas, along with a Book of Mormon, just in case she hadn’t been to church yet.
Andrea Beckett had thrown away a lot of items from her locker—straight-A report cards, clippings about her races from the school newspaper, old running shoes. To her surprise, she had found her Homecoming tiara in there with a note
from David: “I kept this for you. I know someday you might have a little girl as wonderful as you who wants to use it for dressing up.” Andrea’s eyes filled with tears. The crown had gone home with her.
Principal Downing took home a yearbook full of messages from students. Pressed between two of the pages was a foil gum wrapper.
Tyler Cruz had a letter of interest from BYU that had been forwarded to him from his school in Phoenix. He wanted to ask Julie and her friends what they knew about BYU’s basketball program. He knew they would know—it was a Mormon school. It was in the same state as Utah State University, where Maya would be starting college next year.
Since he was retiring, Mr. Thomas took home piles of books, papers, and files. But he left one of the most important parts of himself there—his son.
Owen Thomas brought home the music he’d borrowed from Julie. He was going to work on a full choir arrangement of “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” over the summer for his class next year.
Avery Matthews took the Pass-Along card David had given her with the phone number for a free Book of Mormon written on it. She put it on her mirror. It reminded her to pray, which she tried to do occasionally, even though it didn’t feel entirely comfortable yet.
Julie Reid took home the Book of Mormon that she’d kept in her locker since January and thought about who she could give it to. Kevin kept coming to mind. She knew it would take a lot of prayer and faith, but she thought that with help she could take the next step in the long process of letting go of her anger and pain.
The door had closed behind them once, twice, a thousand times. They had brought heartaches and fears and ideas and doubts and testimonies and everything that a teenage mind and a backpack can contain. Everyone had something to offer and something to learn. Some testimonies had deepened; some had just begun to grow; some were dormant, but seeds had been planted. Each face in the yearbook had a story to tell.
Stories were everywhere.
The bell rang in the empty hall.
About the Author
Allyson Braithwaite Condie received a degree in English teaching from Brigham Young University. She went on to teach high school English in Utah and New York for several years. She loved her job because it combined two of her favorite things—working with students and reading great books.
Currently, however, she is employed by her two little boys, who keep her busy playing trucks and going to the park. They also like to help her type and are very good at drawing on manuscripts with red crayon. In addition to spending time with them and with her husband, she loves reading, running, eating, and traveling. Yearbook is her first book.