As crazy as the world had become in early 2020, sure enough, when August rolled around, school returned and hit the ground running.

Kicking off the school year fully online was an extreme change for many of the students here at Air Academy High School, but the greatest challenge arose for the yearbook staff. Creating this year’s yearbook proved to be an exceptionally difficult process compared to previous years.

First and foremost, the most important key ingredient to creating a successful yearbook has always revolved around the photos within it. Yet, right off the bat, yearbook staff faced a handful of inconveniences.

For one, the in-person school system had not only been closed for the first few weeks of school, but once school had reopened in September, classes remained small in numbers and left little content to be collected for our yearbook team.

Emily Doryk, the head of yearbook staff and literature teacher here at AAHS shared some of the troubles the team experienced:

“The biggest difficulty in creating a yearbook during the pandemic was that most people learned from home. Because of this, it was difficult to get pictures of all the students,” Doryk stated. “Additionally, it was more difficult to communicate with yearbook staff working from home to make sure everything got done, but our amazing staff made it work!”

In another instance, one of our school’s biggest features lies within our wide range of sports teams. The coverage for these teams had proved a tad more difficult when they were each unable to get together and take a group photo. Due to COVID and mask requirements, the representation and team spirit for Air Academy’s sports teams appeared to be greatly hindered.

Nonetheless, the yearbook team worked around each and every error being thrown their way. With a resilience of steel and a knack for teamwork, the success for this year’s yearbook was not to be denied!

Editor and junior Sara Cole spoke out about her experience with this yearbook, stating that the success of this year’s pages came from the large percentage of teamwork and ideas flowing throughout. Cole added, “If one [of our] page ideas wasn’t working well because of the pandemic, we were able to quickly and effectively come up with different pages that were creative.”

“This year’s yearbook staff was very skilled artistically and [in] graphic design,” shared Doryk. “Because of this, one of the biggest successes this year was the design of our pages. I love the colors and shapes that the staff were able to integrate into the design of the yearbook!”

The difficulties of this year only worked as a push for stronger teamwork and thinking outside the box.

Junior Zoe Clark explained her thoughts on their work to completion, stating, “It was super great to see everyone come together and work through our difficulties…and take on the hard parts of this year together!”

Junior Nathaniel Lewis also agreed that the joint efforts from yearbook staff were extremely important to the execution of this year’s yearbook! He explained the helpful efforts from those apart of the yearbook staff who could drive and collect photos from outside the school: “It means a lot when your peers are willing to go to Denver to take some sports photos!”

“[Sometimes] we needed to help each other in order to reach our own deadlines,” Lewis also stated, “I feel like the end of the yearbook was great! We were able to get [everything done].”

Equally important, the yearbook has had many changes from the standard and usual quota.

“Our end product looks very different than past yearbooks since so many events were canceled or delayed,” Doryk explains, “However, this gave the staff opportunity to try new things that they might not have done before. Because of this, I am very proud of the final product, even if it is unlike any other yearbooks before.”

The success of this year’s yearbook cannot be denied, the yearbook staff can assure this to students, parents, and teachers alike.

Last but not least, Junior Isaac Rhoades recollected the experiences and feelings faced during this crazy year. “I feel kindness, love, and responsibility; I had a lot of fun having a hand in creating the yearbook,” Rhoades explained, “I say thank you to everything that stood out to me, like helping each other out! Thank you for working together.”

Despite the many challenges this year has presented to everyone, students made sure to make the most of it. This shines through in the work they’ve done.

The collaborative efforts put into Air Academies 2020-2021 yearbook are about to finally be uncovered! With almost every copy being purchased, this is the first year that yearbooks may sell out! With the end of the year approaching, the arrival of our yearbook is almost here!