Idea File Fall 2024

Editor’s Corner | 5

Senior Tribute. Olivia Littleton and her parents, Mike and Linda Littleton, walk down the track at Smithville High School for the girls’ soccer senior night in spring 2021. Littleton played soccer for 14 years and was on varsity all four years in high school. While Littleton stopped playing after high school, she is currently a senior at Southern Baptist University. On the Mound. Jullian Watkins pitches the ball at the Smithville High School baseball game on April 30, 2021. Watkins played baseball as the pitcher up until his junior year. Watkins graduated from Smithville High School in the spring of 2022. Checking the Shot. Ella Lehman looks at a photo she took at the 2020 graduation ceremony. Lehman was in yearbook for all four years of her high school career and later ended up being editor-in-chief of the yearbook in the 2021-2022 school year. She is now a sophomore at the University of Arkansas where she studies graphic design. Photos by Grace Albright ADVICE FROM AN EDITOR Once I started college, I recognized a lot of common factors when dealing with different types of people, and I used my experience in yearbook to help deal with similar situations years down the line. While I don’t have the same level of involvement in college yearbook as I did in my high school yearbook, I still use those same strategies today. The most significant activity I currently participate in is marching band. I attend Northwest Missouri State University and am a part of the Bearcat Marching Band (BMB), where I play the piccolo. BMB and yearbook have several commonalities; good, neutral and challenging. Both include people who believe they are better than you at everything. Although plenty of enjoyable people welcomed me, I’ve learned that everywhere you go, you will find someone with a competitive nature trying to outshine you. Yearbook taught me that when these types of people come around, just roll your eyes and move on… sometimes. It may get to a point where someone gets a little too comfortable telling people what to do and may not realize how they sound. Laugh it off, if you can. Time often teaches them better than you ever could. Situations may also occur where you must stick up for yourself and others. Remember how I said some people would change other people’s spreads? Some of the designs needed serious edits. But rather than changing the design without the original designer knowing, coaching the original designer to fix their spread would have resulted in a cleaner spread and the other staff members learning what to do next time. With all of that said, I loved my experience with yearbook. I value the memories I made and it remains the best thing I did in my high school career. No matter where you go, there will always be someone who gets on your nerves. Learn to deal with it and de-escalate tense situations. Communication is your best friend. Once you know how to communicate with your team, everything gets much easier and things move a lot more smoothly. So next time someone is bringing you down, take a deep breath and think about your time in yearbook. By Grace Albright

DIFFICULTIES BEHIND THE BOOK I finally decided to apply for a leadership role and became the social media editor at Smithville High School my senior year. When I got the editor role, I felt so excited and couldn’t wait to start. I quickly learned that although I had a great time and felt good about the work that needed to get done, I sometimes encountered problematic people. Among them were several editors assigned to revise staff members’ spreads. Instead of working through the spread with the original designer, they trashed the design and redesigned it themselves. Staff members sometimes only discovered this when they saw the printed book. There were also a few of our younger staff members who were overconfident in their photography skills and not open to feedback. Those things made life a little difficult at times, but I learned how to deal with those situations and did what I could to make the situation better.