If you’re looking for something to validate your high school experience, look no further than the senior superlatives.
Some say they’re shallow and superficial. As the two most shallow and superficial people in our respective grades, we beg to differ (and also would like to campaign for these superlatives to be added to the list next year).
Superlatives weren’t created with malicious intent. They aren’t in our yearbook to make people feel bad about themselves or jealous of their peers.
They’re in our yearbook to celebrate the exceptionally unique people we have at Langley. Whether the winners are exceptionally unique because of their personalities or their superior genetic combinations, they deserve to be recognized.
We know what some of you are thinking. Why promote a glorified popularity contest and publish it in our school yearbook?
The answer is simple: survival of the fittest.
We, as a school, can’t remove superlatives because we’re afraid of a little healthy competition. Through senior superlatives, students learn valuable life skills, such as campaigning, shameless self-promotion, and how to accept defeat.
There isn’t a superlative for everyone, we realize that. But maybe those people just aren’t “fit” enough. You have to mold yourself into one of the available superlatives beginning your freshman year in order to be competitive for a superlative.
And even if you make it on the ballot, you have to gain the aforementioned skill of shameless self-promotion to get people to vote for you. For example, take the superlative Best Dressed. In order to win, I (Riley) had to both clear out my bank account every two weeks and never wear sweat pants. The whole week of voting, I put together my best outfits to gain votes.
Is it sad that I really wanted to win Best Dressed? Perhaps it is. But I was looking for a way to make my high school experience meaningful.
Since I’m about as shallow as a rain puddle, meaningful for me is winning a senior superlative.
For me, (Cayhan) I unfortunately wasted my freshman year campaigning for Best Looking (and that plastic surgery was expensive). So, I had to change strategy and promote myself for Most Spirited. I’ve committed to going to all Langley sporting events and going all out for spirit days for the rest of my time at Langley: be it a freshman game or varsity, I’ll be there in green, gold, black, or white.
It’s been tough at the away games, but I still have another two years to go. Consider this my formal announcement of my candidacy, and feel free to start the nominations now.
Even though they may not be meaningful to those of you with deeper personalities than us, beauty (and a superlative) is in the eye of the beholder.