They’re here. They’re finally here. For a long time, Cape Coral High seniors have lacked one essential aspect to send them off into the real world: senior quotes. But now, the wait is over, CCHS senior class of ‘26 is lucky enough to be granted the privileges of leaving their final words in their senior yearbook. Whether it’s an inspirational quote or a random saying from their teacher, senior quotes are making a comeback after 20+ years. (as long as it’s submitted before December 22).
The yearbook staff came together to construct a few ideas that students wanted to see. A prominent and recurring idea that came to mind, according to yearbook teacher Jill Poletis, were senior quotes. “Our yearbook staff was able to come up with a Google form, it was able to get launched, [and] into the senior’s hands.” On October 28, the Google form Poletis mentions was posted in the senior Google classroom by yearbook editor-in-chief (EIC) Sylvie Winters.
As the EIC, Winters says she is doing most of it herself, including coming up with strict guidelines, promoting on instagram, and the Google Classroom. “I’ve been doing all of the work on it, creating strict guidelines. The reason they’ve been frowned upon in the past is they may have double meanings that could slip past editors and advisors.”
Some of the guidelines include not being able to get a quote if you haven’t gotten a picture with CADY, your quote being replaced with “Go Seahawks” if it’s found to have an alternative inappropriate interpretation, and that it must be submitted before the deadline of Dec. 22.
There are various reasons why senior quotes were not incorporated in the year book, but there is one that seems to be the biggest reason. To Poletis’ knowledge, CCHS didn’t have them due to the tremendous amount of work it added on to the yearbook, “it’s definitely an undertaking. So it’s definitely easier not having them in there,” Poletis said. “But I’m glad we’re trying it this year to see how it can look.”
Aside for those few things, “I feel like [Ryan] Mr. Jackson trusts [Jill] Mrs. Poletis and I to regulate everything, our book last year had zero problems compared to ones in the past,” said Winters. “Once we get all the quotes, we’re going to share with the admin to get their approval on all, and any they are unsure about, we won’t hunt down the student.”
There will be many eyes overlooking quotes, and they will all go through many barriers to get approved. Seniors must make sure their quote is appropriate for school, not only so their quote won’t be replaced with a generic one, but so future classes can have this for themselves as well.
The workload the yearbook is taking on includes multiple things such as making sure seniors submit their quotes before the deadline (Dec 22) and proofreading each and every quote to make sure that they’re all school appropriate to be published in the yearbook. Poletis says she isn’t as familiar with all of the new ‘slang’ that’s been created over the past few years, “there are double meanings and triple meanings behind a lot of stuff, so I might not know all of the logic behind it and the different standards.”
Since the senior quotes were a group idea, proof reading is going to be a group effort from all of the yearbook staff. In context, the yearbook staff consists of about 30 students, and there are almost 700 seniors in the class of ‘26 so it will definitely be a struggle for them.
Because of the large group of kids, Poletis thinks that a big challenge the yearbook might face is getting all of the senior pictures by deadline. “We are about halfway through all of our seniors actually getting their pictures done with Cady, our photographer. My biggest nervousness is that we’re not going to have all of our students represented in the yearbook.”.
The only way seniors can get a senior quote is if they get a senior photo, according to Poletis.“I’m [truly] excited to see how they turn out. I remember my senior quote, [and] I think it’s a really good opportunity for someone to shout out where they’re coming from and what they believe these four years at [CCHS] meant to them.”
Before coming to Cape High, Poletis has been around many other schools and she got the opportunity to see senior quotes take place, so she knows how it must feel to have a quote and a legacy to leave behind in the archives.
As a senior herself, Winters is “hoping to have something to look back on that reflects my life when I was in highschool, and I hope that other seniors get that out of it too.”
Similarly, the yearbook’s co-editor, Yan Ling Wu, doesn’t know what she wants her own quote to be, but she is very excited to make her own quote and to see everyone else’s. “A senior quote that stands out to me is one that you can tell reflects a person. Whether it’s a quote or their own words, you can tell it carries a deeper meaning.”
Having senior quotes might not be as important to some, but to a lot of seniors, they’ve waited for this day since third grade. “I feel like it gives people a chance to have fun, and then they can look back on it and [say] ‘Oh my God, that was so funny’,” said senior Ravyn Hicks-Badger. “I tried to lean funny, but only like certain people [will get it]. I wanted to be niche.”
“[Senior quotes] provide more than a face to a person,” said another senior, Ava Haglund. “[I think] a person is more than just a few words.” While senior quotes might be a big part of many’s senior years, people truly can’t just be defined by the words they leave in their high school yearbook.
Poletis doesn’t plan on going anywhere, “I would like to continue this next year and going forward, it depends how this works. I really want the senior class [to] show up for these so it can prove that we need to continue this moving forward.”
It is imperative that seniors make sure they are fully prepared and participating in this opportunity, so that they can allow future seniors to get the same experience. “If we don’t get a lot of feedback and entries, it might be something that we might not continue doing.”
