Buying, looking at, and signing yearbooks at the end of a school year is a high school tradition passed down throughout the years in schools all over the country. But why? Why do we make them? Why do we sign them? Why do we keep them? What happens to them when we’re gone?

Students have a variety of reasons for purchasing a yearbook, though most relate to having something to look back on later in life.

“It is important to me to buy a yearbook every year because you only go through high school once so it’s how I hold on to the memories,” senior Lilly Starr said.

Some buy yearbooks every year but can’t really pin down one main reason for owning it.

“I only look at my yearbooks when I’m trying to find someone when I’m telling a story,” senior Rhyann Mynatt said.

Even students who don’t buy a yearbook EVERY year agree with the fact that they for sure need ONE – the one from their senior year.

“I definitely plan on buying one for my senior year just because it’s the best years,” said senior Abby Thomson.

Adults who have kept their high school yearbooks look at them years later in certain situations, like to show their kids or to pull them out right before a high school reunion.

“As a kid, my brother and I used to always look through our parents and they would tell us all about their high school experiences. Now, we look at them every time I move or come across them,” FACS teacher Brooke Kendall said.

Teachers who did not attend BSHS say they are much more incorporating and in depth to who our students are than in their high school yearbooks.

“BSHS yearbooks are much more thorough and inclusive to all groups,” said english teacher Emily Pritzel.

Regret is the biggest topic when it comes to not buying a yearbook. What if down the road, you are telling a story about that kid in your sophomore year chemistry class and you can’t think of his name? Or your description of him just isn’t cutting it they way you want it to. Having his yearbook photo to show would help.